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^??<f ""^""'l HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES R?^"!^^'}' 
2d Session J | No. 1544 



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Ariosto a. Wiley 

(Late a Representative from Alabama) 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



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Sixtieth Congress 
Second Session 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
February 21, 1909 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
February 27, 1909 



Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing 



WASHINGTON : : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : : 1909 



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V 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Proceedings in the House 5 

Prayer by Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D 6 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. Underwood, of Alabama 8 

Mr. Taylor, of Alabama 11 

Mr. Parker, of New Jersey 16 

Mr. Richardson, of Alabama 18 

Mr. Holliday, of Indiana 22 

Mr. Burnett, of Alabama 25 

Mr. Hull, of Iowa 28 

Mr. Denby, of Michigan 31 

Mr. Heflin, of Alabama 35 

Mr. Gordon, of Tennessee ' 39 

Mr. Craig, of Alabama 43 

Mr. Hobson, of Alabama 46 

Mr. Williams, of Mississippi 48 

Mr. Stevens, of Minnesota : 52 

Mr. Ellerbe, of South Carolina 55 

Mr. Sherwood, of Ohio 57 

Mr. Clayton, of Alabama 60 

Proceedings in the Senate 67 

Prayer by Rev. Edward E. Hale 67 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. Bankhead, of Alabama 70 

Mr. McEnery, of Louisiana 76 

Mr. Johnston, of Alabama 79 

3 



DEATH OF REPRESENTATIVE ARIOSTO A* WILEY 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE 

Monday, Decembrr 7,1908. 

]\Ir. Clayton. Mr. Speaker, it becomes my melancholy duty 
to announce to the House of Representatives the death of our 
former colleague, Hon. Ariosto A. Wiley, a Member of the 
House of Representatives from the Second Congressional Dis- 
trict of Alabama. 

On a later day I shall ask the House to set aside a day in 
which suitable eulogies on the work, life, and character of our 
friend and colleague may be paid. 

I now desire to offer the following resolutions, which I send 
to the Clerk's desk, and move their adoption. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House of Representatives has heard with pro- 
found sorrow of the death of Hon. Ariosto A. WilEv, a Member of the 
House of Representatives from the Second Congressional District of 
Alabama; that the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate, 
and send a copy thereof to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of our 
deceased colleague, Hon. Ariosto A. Wiley, the House do now adjourn. 

The resolution was agreed to. 

Accordingly, at i o'clock and 2 minutes p. m., the House ad- 
journed until to-morrow at 12 o'clock noon. 

Thursday, January 14, igog. 
Mr. Clayton. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for 
the present consideration of the following order, which I send 
to the desk and ask to have read. 



6 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Ordered, That there be a session of the House at 12 m., Sunday, 
February 21, for the delivery of eulogies on the life, character, and pub- 
lic ser\'ices of the Hon. Ariosto A. Wiley, late a Member of this House 
from Alabama. 

The Speaker. Is there objection? 

There was no objection. 

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the order. 

The order was agreed to. 

Sunday, February 21 , jqoq. 

The House met at 12 o'clock m., and was called to order by 
Mr. Smith of Iowa, as Speaker pro tempore. 

The following prayer was offered by the Chaplain, Rev. Henry 
N. Couden, D. D. : 

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, in whom we live and 
move and have our being; we would pour out the oblations of 
our hearts in gratitude and praise to Thee, the dispenser of 
all good gifts, and hallow Thy name in a faithful and unselfish 
devotion to Thee and our fellow-men, and thus prove ourselves 
worthy of all the gifts Thou hast bestowed upon us. \\'e thank 
Thee for that spirit down deep in the hearts of men which 
recognizes and appreciates the nobility of soul in I heir fellows, 
which displays itself in a faithful ser\'ice to the public weal, 
for this special service to-day, sacred to the memory of men who 
have conspicuously ser\^ed tht-ir country in the Congress of the 
United States, and passed on to their reward. Grant, oh most 
merciful Father, that their example may serve as beacon lights 
to guide us and those who shall come after us to high and noble 
living. Comfort the friends, colleagues, and family of the de- 
parted, and help them to look forward with bright anticipations 
to that larger life beyond the grave, where there shall be no 
more parting, and where God shall wipe all tears from all faces, 



Proceedings in the House 7 

and where peace and happiness shall reign forever. In Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. Amen. 

The Speaker pro tempore. This hour has been set apart 
for exercises in memory of the life, character, and public serv- 
ices of the Hon. Ariosto A. Wiley, and the Clerk will read the 
special order. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Ordered, That there be a session of the House at 12 m., Sunday, Feb- 
ruary 21, for the delivery of eulogies on the life, character, and public 
services of the Hon. Ariosto A. Wilev, late a Member of this House from 
Alabama. 

Mr. Clayton. Mr. Speaker, I move the adoption of the 
resolutions which I send to the Clerk's desk to be read. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
of Hon. Ariosto Appling Wiley, late a Member of this House from the 
State of Alabama, which occurred at Hot Springs, Va., June 17, 1908. 

Resolved, That the business of the House is now suspended that op- 
portunity may be given to pay tribute to his memory. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the deceased, and in 
recognition of his distinguished public service, the House at the con- 
clusion of the memorial exercises of the day shall stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to the family 
of the deceased. 

The question was taken, and the resolutions were unani- 
mously agreed to. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The gentleman from Alabama 
[Mr. Clayton] will take the chair. 



8 Memorial Addresses: Ariosio A. Wiley 



MEMORIAL Addresses 



Address of Mr. Underwood, of Alabama 

Mr. Speaker: We will all agree that the greatest pleasure 
that comes to us from a membership in the House of Representa- 
tives springs from the strong, warm frendships that we form 
among our associates, and that there is no sadder experience that 
confronts us as ^Iembers of this body than when we are called 
upon to mourn the loss of one of our comrades. 

Ariosto a. Wiley was a friend of many years standing; I 
knew him well long before he was elected t<5 Congress, and I share 
with the others who knew him in feeling deeply the great loss 
that has come to us. It is impossible for any of us to pay a 
just tribute to our silent and absent friend; we can only admire 
some of his many good deeds and leading characteristics. One 
side of his life reveals the soldier, another gives us a view of 
him as an able and strong lawyer, and when we look into the 
fading light of the past, we love and admire him most for the 
warm and generous characteristics that bound him to us as a 
friend. His life work speaks more eloquently for liiin ilian the 
words of his former colleagues here; we can only say that we 
will ever remember and cherish the charm of manner, the 
warmtli <>1 heart, the honesty of character of his true life as 
long as time shall last for us. 

Some of our comrades pass to the great beyond, and when 
they are gone there is litlK- left to say except "Amen." There 
are others who fill our hearts and minds with tender memories 



Address of Mr. Underwood, of Alabama g 

and sweet remembrances of the days that are dead that can 
never come back to us, and our souls revolt against the bitter 
decree that has snapped asunder the ties of friendship that 
bound our earthly destinies together. 

For many months our friend bravely and patiently lingered 
in the cruel agonies of his last sickness, and during that period 
of uncertainty many of us anxiously hoped that the dreaded 
message which we feared must come might in some way be 
averted. When the final message came that our friend and 
companion had passed to the great beyond, we rebelled against 
the cruel decree, and all our philosophies failed to keep down 
the bitter plaint that we sent forth from unwilling hearts. 

Whv should he go in the very ripeness of his mature man- 
hood; so fond of life, so useful to his people, so thoughtful of 
the needs of others? The power that issued the final edict not 
onlv pierced the hearts of his devoted family, but of friends 
whose names are legion. 

Some men are made of only one material. We see a man 
made of the finest clay, but of the softer mold; another stands 
against the storms of time as granite rock; another rises above 
the plains of mediocrity as a mountain peak, until the sunlight 
of the world's fame flashes about his head. 

Here we find a man who lives out his existence amid the soft 
breezes and delicious perfumes that seem to be wafted by un- 
known powers from a sleeping Orient; another draws life's 
material from the sorrows of humanity through the uplifting 
of great strife and pain. One is made of stern material ; another 
of the sweeter virtues that carry only peace along the lines of 
least resistance. 

When time shall write the true history of our departed friend, 
we will find protrayed a man of composite character; the cour- 
age and strength of the soldier; mind and logic of the lawyer; 



lo Memorial Addresses: Ariosio A. Wiley 

the eloquence of the statesman; and, above all, the warm, true 
heart that bound his friendships to him. 

\\'hen the war clouds enveloped our country and men of the 
stronger mold were found at the front, our friend offered his 
sword in his country's cause and served in foreign lands to the 
honor of his country and the credit f)f his State. When the 
dove of peace had once more closed the gates of war, he returned 
to his native State and received from a loving constituencv a 
commission to serve them in the council of the Nation, which 
place he filled with earnest endeavor and strong devotion to the 
people he represented. 

He had unyielding courage against the oppressor; he had a 
strong heart in the face of danger; he was ever quick to respond 
to duty's call, and his soul always beat in sympathy with the 
suffering and the destitute. 

We have lost in his death one of the truest and best among 
us. A comrade has gone from us and left a place that can not 
be filled in the hearts of those who knew and honored him. 

There is no death' What seems so is transition; 

This life of mortal iDreath 
Is but a suburb of the life elysian, 

Whose portal we call Death. 



Address of Mr. Taylor, of Alabama ii 



Address of Mr. Taylor, of Alabama 

Mr. Speaker: Ariosto A. Wiley was born at Clayton, in 
the celebrated county of Barbour, Ala., in 1848, and was de- 
scended from distinguished Scottish ancestry, who settled in 
Mecklenburg County, N. C, and were in full sympathy with the 
earliest American idea and spirit of independence as expressed 
in the famous Mecklenburg declaration. His father, James 
McCaleb Wiley, was an honored and eminent citizen, an able 
lawyer, and a learned judge, and grand master of the IVIasonic 
fraternity in the State of Alabama, who lived a long life of use- 
fulness, in which he enjoyed the full confidence and approval of 
his people. His mother was a granddaughter of the Rev. John 
Brown, the first president of the college at Athens, Ga., and a 
noted and accomplished preacher and scholar. 

The boyhood of young Wiley was spent in the city of Troy 
and his school days were passed in the common schools of that 
period, the greater part of which was during the civil war. 
More fortunate than many in those days, he had the advantage 
of college training, and was graduated from Emory and Henrv, 
Virginia, in 1870. In 1871 he read law, according to the cus- 
tom of the day, in a private law ofiice in Clayton, his native 
town, and was admitted to practice within the same vear. 
On the day following his admission to the bar he undertook 
the defense of a man on the charge of murder, and acquitted 
himself so signally as to spring at once into notice and reputa- 
tion. In the same year he removed to ^Montgomery and be- 
came associated with one of the leading law firms in the State, 
which later became known as Rice & Wiley, and so continued 



12 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

till the death of the senior member, Hon. Samuel F. Rice, 
one of the most eminent jurists and attorneys of the South. 

As a lawyer, Colonel Wiley took position early in the first 
rank of the- profession. He was an indefatigable worker, a 
thorough student, vigorous, bold, able, and aggressive in the 
court room, and a formidable advocate in the management of 
his cases. He was equally strong in the practice in the Su- 
preme Court, and commanded always the attention of court 
and bar. 

He was a winning, eloquent, and persuasive speaker; and one 
of the charms of his nature and habit was that he paid the same 
attention and gave as much time to the preparation and studv 
of his clients' cause without regard to the amount involved or 
the relative importance of parties. In other words, he was 
thorough and conscientious at all times. He was earnestly 
and enthusiastically the friend as well as the attornev of his 
clients. Their cause was to him always right. This ready 
synipulliN- and clannish devotion won for him among his clients 
the warmest feelings of friendship, and the generous and chival- 
rous nature of the man enabled him to hold his friends with 
"hooks of steel. " It also ser\-ed to make for him enemies; and 
he had them, as all strong men have had in the past and will 
continue to have in the future. What enemies he had were 
gained by aggressive services to clients and devoted loyaltv, 
and support to friends. 

His range of practice was wide and varied, extending from 
the court room of the justice of peace to the Supreme Court of 
tlu- United States. 

As an evidence of the stability with which he held his clients 
he was elected attorney for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad 
at its organization, and held the post for many years, and 
died in harness with them, beloved, honored, respected, and 
approved. 



Address of Mr. Taylor, of Alabama 13 

His boyhood developed during the civil war, and doubtless 
this had its intluence upon the character as well as upon the 
life and life work of the man. At any rate, he seemed to take 
naturally to the military, and was early connected with the 
state volunteer militia, and held many responsible oflfiices in 
this service, from captain of cavalry to colonel and staff officer 
with several governors of his State. 

So he was prepared for military service in the Spanish- 
American w^ar, and promptly responded to the call to arms. He 
was lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Immune Regiment, and 
reached Cuba soon after the capture and occupation of Santiago. 

In public as in professional life. Colonel Wiley was a con- 
spicuous and successful man. He was eminently public-spirited 
and eminently well qualified for civic duties. He ser^^ed as 
councilman in his home city for years, and was for many years 
elected first to the house and then to the senate of the State of 
Alabama. In his service as councilman and legislator no man 
did more arduous or successful work, and he was a recognized 
leader in every body to which he was called to membership, 
servnng as chairman of the judiciary committee of the senate 
when he was elected to Congress. 

So he was exceptionally qualified for the ser\'ice which fell 
to his lot in Cuba. The province of Santiago was in political 
and legal chaos. The general in command detailed Colonel 
Wiley, and he prepared a code of laws which was most efifective 
in bringing about a speedy and peaceful settlement of all dis- 
orders, so much so that the governor of the province gave him 
high credit and recommended his efforts as worthy of promotion. 

Colonel Wiley was a broad-minded American, full of patriot- 
ism for the old flag, for the Union, and the United States. In 
his brave heart there lived as loyal and devoted patriotism and 
love for the flag as ever beat in all our history under "a coat 
of blue." 



14 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. ]]'i'lcv 

After the Spanish-American war Colonel Wiley was elected 
to Congress in 1900, and remained in office till his death. He 
was renominated for the Sixty-first Congress without a personal 
canvass and while he was lying upon the couch of his last illness. 
It was a splendid tribute of a splendid people to a splendid 
man and citizen. It was the voice of a great State to a beloved 
and honored son, saying unmistakably — 

Well done, thou good and faithful servant. 

Colonel Wiley was recognized as an orator of ability outside 
of his profession. He made numerous addresses upon a wide 
range of subjects and in different States. Among these special 
honors paid him was the invitation to represent his countr\- in 
the Queen's Jubilee at Tampa, Fla., where he acquitted himself 
in such a way as to receive thanks in a personal letter from the 
Queen. 

I knew Colonel WilEy for many years and knew him wtll. 
He was my friend always, and I loved him for his loyalt\- and 
his loyal generosity. No man I ever met wl-uL farther in the 
call of friendship or could be more implicitly relied upon to do a 
friend's part than Ariosto A. Wiley. He had ideals of friend- 
ship of his own, lofty as tlie towering pines of his loved State. 
Friendship was to him a principle and lifted him above the 
clouds and into the bright sunshine, wlu-re he lived up to the 
highest conception of that rare virtue. He was a friend "to 
tie to and to count on " with absolute faith and confidence. It 
was my lot to see him often in his last illness. I never saw a 
braver, truer man in pain and sickness. Racked with torture, 
which at times overcame tlie power of human nature to endure 
in silence, wlien the jjaroxysm passed his bedside was as his 
home was always, a rare delight and pleasant place for friends 
to meet and be happy. He was bright, cheerful, full of anec- 
dotes, affectionate, and ajipreciative to the last, and uncom- 



Address of Mr. Taylor, of Alabama 15 

plaining. His people at home buried him with all the honors 
of a distinguished citizen and with what makes honors greater 
and more sacred — with tears from a thousand eyes and sighs 
from a thousand hearts, the perfect testimony of love and 
friendship. 

There have been few men in Alabama who won and kept and 
deserved the honor and affection given by the people, especially 
the people of Montgomery, to Ariosto A. Wiley, lawyer, legis- 
lator, patriot, soldier, statesman, and friend. 



i6 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 



Address of Mr. Parker, of New Jersey 

Mr. vSpkaker: It was a very great shock to those of us who, 
in so short a time, had grown to know and love Ariosto A. 
Wiley when we learned of his death. I saw him a few days 
before he left Washington to die. His manly form and splendid 
presence were prostrate under searching pain, but the same 
heart, the same courage, and the same friendship that belonged 
to him here will go with him to eternity. There was a singular 
poetrv in his nature. It came forth in all that he said and all 
that he did. His earnestness and belief in the higher things 
were such as are seldom to be found, and with them were 
kniehtlv chivalrv and courage, belief in man, belief in woman, 
and the disposition to do his duty without fear of consequences 
and without reck of what other people might think. 

I feel always as though in these descriptions of friends on 
sucli occasions we tell very little. We can no more describe 
the personality of a man's niiiul and character than we can 
describe his bodily person so that it will be recognized. 

His real memorv, for those who knew and wish to know our 
friend, lies in his many works and in his many speeches. They 
tell of him. I looked over a few of those speeches within the 
last few davs and found them brimful of himself. In one he 
was urging the passage of a law to allow the fighting masts of 
the Oqiiendo, which was sunk at Santiago, and of the Don Juan 
d'Aiistria, which was sunk at Manila, to be placed in the capitol 
grounds in Montgomery, a city which was, as he recalled, not 



Address of Mr. Parker, of New Jersey 17 

only the capital of the State of Alabama, but also the first 
capital of the southern confederacy. He said: 

They are to be used as llagslaffs from which to display the starry banner 
of the Union — the standard of a united country — as an emblem of the 
blended patriotism of the men and the sons of the men who wore both the 
blue and the gray in the fratricidal conflict in the long ago between the 
two great sections of our great and glorious Republic. 

It will furnish another evidence of the trutli that all sectional lines 
have been obliterated, and that we are banded together once more and 
forever in the common bonds of union, loyalty, fraternal love, and civil 
liberty. 

Patriotism like this filled his nature, a patriotism that went 

out not only to his country, but to its people — to all his many 

friends that he made in every walk of life. I have felt that a 

eulogy which he delivered upon his friend, Robert E. Burke, 

could well be applied to himself: 

Full of humanity himself, a reciprocating people delighted to honor 
him. Elected to Congress, he served his constituency faithfully and well. 
His life tilled the measure of lofty aspiration, of a high and honorable 
ambition. His influence will work on silently for good, long after we 
have passed away. The virtues of such men are the common inheritance 
of us all. 

We believe, Mr. Speaker, that light everlasting does shine on 

such souls as his. 

86920 — H. Doc. 1544, 60-2 2 



1 8 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 



Address of Mk. Richardson, of Alabama 

Mr. Speaker : An intimate acquaintance for many years 
afforded me the opportunity of understanding and appreciating 
the marked traits of personal character that made our deceased 
friend and colleague, Col. A. A. Wiley, distinguished among 
his fellow-men. 

A man possessed of his temperament, endowed with an 
energy that never tired, guided by a well-trained, vigorous, 
active intellect, would necessarily and inevitably reach high 
rank with his countrymen. The entrance of Colonel Wiley to 
Congress was at the most opportune period of his life — ripe with 
a valuable experience and equipped with useful knowledge. 
For years he had been a most successful lawyer at his home 
in Montgomery, Ala., easily ranking with the foremost lawyers 
of his State. As a legislator in both branches of the general 
assembly of Alabama he acquired a knowledge of legislation 
and parliamentary work that made the broader work and duties 
of a Congressman of easy performance to him. He was thus 
equipped when he entered Congress. 

Many of the great national questions that came up for dis- 
cussion on the floor of the House were familiar to him, and he 
was at ease and fluent in such debates. That it was but a short 
time after his entrance in congressional life before he acquired 
inlluence and strcnglh among his colleagues was a matter of 
no surprise to those of his friends who knew his true worth. 

Death came to him at the most ini])ortant period of his use- 
fulness to his district, his State, and his country. His four 
terms in Congress brought him to the broad plane of useful 



Address of Mr. Richardson, of Alabama 19 

American statesmanship. No public man in Alabama had a 
more promising future, with stronger assurance of full realiza- 
tion of hopes of future political preferment, than Colonel Wiley. 
Energy, industry, and abihty, supplemented with a love of 
method and system in all he did, were the leading character- 
istics of Colonel Wiley. His mind yearned for the true analysis 
and solution of difficult problems of political, legal, or govern- 
mental science and policy, and it was a labor of love to him to 
work and toil. 

In his convictions he was honest, sincere, and immovable. 
Being a generous man by nature, affable and courtly in his 
manner and address, I have found but few among the public 
men of our country more gentle and kindly tolerant of the views 
and feelings of those who differed with him than was Colonel 
Wiley. It grieved and pained him to wound anyone, and when 
conscious that he had done so a full and unstinted apology 
gave his heart pleasure. 

His methodical habits and his love for training and prepared- 
ness naturally led Colonel Wiley to participate in military 
affairs. The Military Committee of the House was his prefer- 
ence when he entered Congress, and at his death he was one of 
the most laborious as well as distinguished members of that 
important committee. 

He was appointed lieutenant-colonel by President McKinley 
in the Spanish-American war, and he is justly credited with 
having performed, in connection with his military duties, most 
valuable servace in preparing a code for the regulation of the 
island of Cuba. I have no doubt that it was while in the dis- 
charge of his duties in Cuba that he contracted the disease that 
finally brought about his death. 

In the walks of private life and in the circle of his personal 
friends the light of his inmost life was fully revealed. Affec- 



20 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

tionate, generous, and sociable, he loved the society of his 
friends. His attachments were sincere and deep and without 
dissimulation. He was hostile by temperament to deceit or 
sycophancy, and scorned the greetings of the insincere flatterer. 
Colonel Wiley had his trials and struggles in early young man- 
hood, and he never forgot the man who extended to him a help- 
ing hand. Ilis pathway was not strewn with the roses of life 
that fall from the hands of strong and influential friends. At 
the close of the great civil war between the States he was but 
a bov. Poverty, with its harsh trials, confronted him. Pos- 
sessed of the buoyant spirit of a manly boy, with an undaunted 
courage he grappled the situation and eagerly pressed forward 
with an outstretched hand to grasp the goal of life success. 
Discouragements must come and always come to such a man 
in his contest in life, but with Colonel Wiley disappointments 
found no abiding place in his make-up. They cast no shadows 
across the path of his life, but served to strengthen and encour- 
age him in the life work before him. He made up his mind to 
come to Congress and one or more defeats did not discourage 
him. 

In mv close personal relations with Colonel Wiley I found 
him to be preeminently a broad-minded man, jiatriotic in all of 
his noble impulses and absolutely free from the touch of a sec- 
tional feeling. He was in the truest sense a first-class southern 
man, not narrow or governed by impracticable or unwise 
policies, but faithful in his love to the great events and wonder- 
ful history of the South, in war and peace. He by his speeches 
and acts held up the bright light of liope to the people of. the 
South, the great industrial and agricultural growth and wealth 
that awaited us in the near future that would give us our 
pristine glory and power in the union of the States and the coun- 
cils of the Republic. In his public life and utterances it was 



Address of Mr. Richardson, of Alabama 21 

such broad and patriotic sentiments that ever animated him. 
It can be truly said of A. A. Wiley that he loved his fellow- 
man. No feeling of envy or jealousy marred or distorted the 
natural relations of his life. He grieved for those that had a 
sorrow and rejoiced with those that were happy, and his generous 
and liberal hand was ready at all hours to extend aid to the 
poor and the needy. 

Colonel Wiley was a modest and retiring man. It was never 
his desire to thrust himself into the limelight and make himself 
conspicuous over others. He preferred to do his work and his 
duty quietly and unobtrusively. 

I was with him, I\Ir. Speaker, often in his last sickness before 
he left this city. His sufferings were intense, but under the 
tender and affectionate care of his noble and beloved wife, whose 
great love had crowned his life with domestic happiness and 
peace, he bore without murmur or complaint the tortures and 
pain that racked his body even to death. 

Such, ^Ir. Speaker, is but a feeble portrayal of the character 
and life of a splendid man — my good friend. His home city of 
Montgomery, Ala., where he was known well in all the walks of 
life, honored and loved him in life, and no people, I dare say, 
in any section of the world could have paid more beautiful, 
pathetic, and sincere tributes of respect and love to the dead 
than those noble people in that beautiful southern city paid to 
their true friend, worthy fellow-citizen, and distinguished Con- 
gressman, Col. A. A. Wiley. And, Mr. Speaker, he deserved 
it all. 



22 Meinorial Addresses: Ariosio A. Wiley 



Address of Mr. Holuday, of Indiana 

Mr. Speaker: The world needs strong, brave, sincere men. 
When a man who is strong, brave, and sincere passes out of 
the world in the very prime of his powers, in the zenith of his 
splendid faculties, the world is a loser. 

I met AriosTO A. WilEy in the committee room. Some mu- 
tual taste drew us together. I came to know him ; and like every 
other man who came to know him, I came to like him exceed- 
ingly well. If I were to define his character, I should say, first 
of all, that he was a manly man. He was absolutely incapable 
of doing a small or dishonorable thing. Such a thing in connec- 
tion with Mr. Wiley would be absolutely unthinkable. He was 
a man of the highest honor, the finest tastes, and a gentleman 
to his finger tips. 

Mr. WiIvEY was an Alabamian, proud of his State; but above 
and beyond all, he was an American. There was nothing sec- 
tional about him. He loved the old Hag, and he loved with 
equal devotion each particular star in the splendid constellation 
which adorns it. 

In the Spanish war there was very little opportunity for the 
display of great military ability. The war did not last long 
enough and the enemy was of too small importance to really 
give scope to military genius. But if we had had a great war, 
if we had met foemcn worthy of our steel, if the war had 
lasted some years, Mr. Wiluy would have gone to the front, 
because he belonged at the front. 

I have seen something of military matters myself. I have 
met and mingled with soldiers a great deal. I think I know 



Address of Mr. Holliday, of Indiana 23 

one when I see him. I feel absolutely certain that if the oppor- 
tunity had come, he would have gained great military distinc- 
tion. I am glad, and I have no doubt he was glad, that the 
opportunity never came, that there was no great effusion of 
blood, and that the war passed away in a few days. 

Most of us know Mr. Wiley by his speeches in the House. 
He was a convincing orator; he made an excellent argument. 

I know him and remember him better by his conversation. 
I never knew a man of better colloquial abilities; I never 
knew a man who could keep up a sustained conversation more 
interestingly. He was a charming talker, and always along 
elevated lines. No coarse jokes, no improper allusions ever 
marred the splendid diction of his conversation, and I learned 
to like him for it, as probably every man did who became 
intimately acquainted with him. One of the pleasures that 
a man enjoys in Congress is the opportunity to get acquainted 
with splendid men like our departed friend. It is a legacy 
which I shall gladly carry with me when I go away to my 
Indiana home. I like to remember the kindly words; I like to 
remember the pleasant greetings; and Wiley always had a 
kindly word and a pleasant greeting. 

You had to know him very well to understand him well. 
He was hardly a hail-fellow well met. He did not slap men on 
the shoulders and call them by their Christian names, but 
maintained a proper dignity; but behind that dignified ex- 
terior was a heart of gold, and you had only to get well enough 
acquainted to find it. 

I believe that cases like this bring us into personal relation- 
ship, make us better friends, and when it comes to speak of 
a departed brother of whom we know and like, there is a 
touch of nature that makes the whole world kin. We forget 
everything else and remember only the pleasant episodes 



24 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

In this connection I may say there is too much talk about 
eastern men, western men, northern men, and southern men; 
the term "American" is a far more appropriate term, and that 
is what Mr. W'lLEV was. I never knew a more patriotic man, 
a man more thoroughly in love with his country; I never knew 
a man of higher ideals in regard to his countr\-. I am glad I 
knew him. I am glad to have had the pleasure of his acquaint- 
ance. I have felt that I am a better man for it. I have felt 
that my own ideals have been raised. I feel that there has 
been an uplifting influence in my life, as no doubt there has 
been in reference to other people. Let us emulate his virtues; 
let us, like him, use what there is in us of strength and power 
in promoting the best interests of our whole common countrv. 



Address of Mr. Burnett, of Alabama 25 



Address of Mr, Burnett, of Alabama 

Mr. Speaker: I desire on this quiet, holy Sabbath to join 
my colleagues in paying my feeble tribute to the memory of 
Ariosto a. Wiley, who, in the midst of a useful career, was 
stricken down by the ruthless hand of death. 

Colonel Wiley was a native Alabamian. He was born in 
Barbour County in 1848, and his whole life was spent within 
the borders of the State of his birth. He graduated from 
Emory and Henry College, Virginia, in 1871. 

In early life he settled at Montgomery, Ala., in the practice of 
law, and was the partner of Hon. Samuel F. Rice, at one time 
chief justice of the Alabama supreme court. Colonel Wiley 
was devoted to his profession, and his tact, industry, and ability 
always commanded for him splendid fees and retainers. He 
loved politics, and was for many years a member of one or the 
other branch of our state legislature. 

I first met him in 1 884, when I was a member of the legisla- 
ture from Cherokee County, and he from Montgomery. I was 
then a youthful member from the mountains, and he from the 
capital city of our State. At first I thought him cold, haughty, 
and repulsive, but as I learned to know him better, I found him 
possessed of as warm a heart as ever throbbed in response to 
the pulsations of friendship. 

After serving with him one session in the legislature our 
meetings were infrequent, and my association with him was 
only occasional until we met in the Halls of Congress. Here 
I learned to know him well, and what was before merely an 
acquaintanceship grew into the closest and warmest friendship. 



26 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

As a lawyer Colonel Wiley was the equal of any; as an offi- 
cial he was earnest, honest, and courageous; and as a friend 
he was loyal, generous, and true. In energy he was tireless. 
At the bar he made the cause of his client his own, and as a 
representative of the people the zeal and energy with which he 
always looked after their interests was the subject of admira- 
tion by all. He was scholarly and logical in debate and would 
champion the cause of the poorest client or humblest constitu- 
ent with just as much earnestness and study as he would that 
of the richest corporation that poured its fees into his till. 

Some of the most eloquent speeches that I heard him deliver 
on the floor of this House was when he was seeking justice for 
the humblest of his constituents. He liked the tented field, 
and when our flag was insulted by Spain he was among the 
first to tender his services to wipe out the stain. He was 
appointed lieutenant-colonel of one of the immune regiments 
enlisted during the war with Spain, and served as such in Cuba. 
After the war had ended he remained some time in Cuba 
and rendered efficient ser\nce in restoring civil government to 
that unfortunate island. 

In whatever position he was placed he was always a full- 
grown man, and one whom his people ever delighted to honor. 
In municipal, state, and federal relations he was always a fear- 
less, aggressive, independent leader. In Alabama's battle for 
our new constitution he took a prominent part. In anv strug- 
gle, civic or military, he was always in the vanguard and never 
skulked with the laggards or camp followers. He was truly a 
man who did things. His life was one of quick, active, intelli- 
gent motion. 

In his eloquent address on the acceptance of the statue of 

Hon. John James Ingalls, Colonel Wiley said: 

A world-renowned Roman orator once declared : " I hold that no man 
deserves to be crowned with honor whose hfe is a failure. He who only 



Address of Mr. Burnett, of Alabama 27 

lives to eat and drink and accumulate money is a failure. The world is 
no better for his being in it. He never wiped a tear from a sad face, never 
kindled a fire on a frozen hearth. I repeat, with emphasis, he is a failure. 
There is no fiesh in his heart. Let no such man be honored." 

This quotation aptly applies the views of my departed friend 
as to his own life. He was ambitious and sought honors, but 
not without meriting them. He knew his powers and his abil- 
ity, but he did not expect his people to blindly worship that 
ability while he folded his hands and rendered them no service 
in return. 

His constituents were quick to appreciate the ability of 
Colonel Wiley, and, I believe, never allowed him to be defeated 
for any ofifice to which he aspired. He was for many years a 
member of the city council of Montgomery, and in this position, 
as well as all others, he showed himself worthy the confidence 
of those who intrusted him with power. 

Had he lived, he would no doubt have remained in this body 
as long as he desired. His memory is embalmed in the hearts 
of his people as one who "knew his duty, and, knowing, dared 
to do." We mourn him dead, but "his deeds do live after him." 

Now is the stately column broke, 
The beacon light is quenched in smoke; 
The trumpet's silver voice is still, 
The warder silent on the hill. 



28 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 



Address of Mr. Hull, of Iowa 

Mr. Chairman-: 1 first knew Colond \Vili:v when he came to 
Congress, at first only generally. During the last years of his 
life I knew him well, as a result of the intimate relationship 
that comes to those on committees, engaged in the same line of 
work, where the parties engaged are desirous of doing their 
full dutv. This he always was desirous of doing. 

If I can. in tlie few minutes I shall speak this afternoon, say 
anything that may add to his fame or be of gratification to his 
family, it will be a pleasure to me. Friendships are not al- 
ways results of time. With some it takes years of intimacy to 
feel that you are acquainted; that you are friends; with others 
only a short time is needed until you are bound together by 
the warmest tics of friendship. It is not for me to speak of his 
past life; that is well and eloquently done by his colleagues, but 
I would like to say a word of Colonel Wiley first as a man. 
He was one of the most genial, companionable, and interesting 
personalities that it has ever been my fortune to meet. In 
talking with those who went to Manila with him on that trip I 
have found without exception universal praise for his courtesy 
and kindness of heart and genius for entertaining his friends 
and grappling them to him with hooks of steel. 

One of these men from my own State, who has met men from 
all parts of the world, expressed himself to me before Colonel 
Wiley's death that never had there been a man to whom all oi 
the party were more attracted than to Colonel WilEY, and so, 
continuing the remark made by my friend from Alabama [Mr. 
Richardson], I want to say that he possessed that other rare 
quality which made his fellow-men love him. 



Address of Mr. Hull, of Iowa 29 

Colonel Wiley was a patriot. Born in the South, in his early 
youth, when the country was torn and distracted witli all the 
horrors of internecine strife, he never allowed these scenes and 
experiences to cause him to love his country less. Always 
loyal to his people and his State, in a larger sense he was de- 
voted to the Republic. 

As a member of the Committee on Military Affairs, there 
never was a measure brought before that committee which he 
conceived would be for the honor, dignity, benefit, or glory of 
his country, that he was not an eloquent, earnest, and persistent 
champion of the measure. In that great committee, over which 
I have the honor to preside, politics rarely enter. We try to 
consider the measures, not upon their political bearing in anv 
sense, but with Colonel WilEy, almost above any other member 
of the committee, it never was a question of party, but always a 
question of countrv. 

He was a patriot, because during his middle life, when the 
war broke out, he left the people he loved at home to brave 
the dangers of a tropical climate and face a foreign enemy, and 
he remained under the flag until his services were not loneer 
needed. It was a matter of pride to him. He bore an honor- 
able part in bringing the blue and the gray together under the 
flag, battling for a common cause. No longer can any patriot 
draw the line between the sections of our common country. 

As a Member of the House of Representatives he was always 
earnest and diligent, eloquent and able. As a man I can only 
say that if the world were inhabited only by such men as Colonel 
Wiley we would all be happy. I have never, in all mv relations 
with men here, met a man who had so remarkable an influence 
with his fellow-men. We had, in the committee, disputes that 
looked as though they might lead to bad feeling with the mem- 
bership; yet Colonel WiLEY was always a peacemaker. While 



30 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

not giving up a single particle of his convictions, he stilled the 
passions and established peace. 

To me it was a great sorrow and a great surprise when the 
telegraphic news of his death flashed over the countrv. I am 
glad it was not my jirivilege to see him after he was stricken 
with illness. I remember him as a buoyant, splendid, physical 
man that impressed everyone with whom he came in contact 
with his strength, both mentally and physically; and to me he 
will always remain in the j^rime of his life and the vigor of 
his manhood. I hope as years go by his virtues may be emu- 
lated, and that other sons of the Southland may come here bear- 
ing with them the same high type of statesmanship and manhood 
that was possessed by our deceased friend. 

I want to say, in conclusion, carrying a little further what 
the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Underwood] said, "There is 
no Death;" let us hope, as we who believe in the Christian re- 
ligion do hope and believe : 

There is no Death ! The stars go down 
To rise upon some fairer shore. 

And in the great beyond, with the recognition of friends there, 
may we meet this great and good man who lias gon(^ before. 



Address of Mr. Denby, of Michigan 31 



Address of Mr. Denby, of Michigan 

Mr. Speaker: In the natural course of events we are called 
upon all too frequently to mourn the loss of dear friends. In 
Congress the kindly custom prevails of giving to surviving 
associates of Members who have passed away the opportunity 
to put on record in endearing form their estimate of their 
former associates. 

Seldom, indeed, do we approach consideration of the character 
and achievements of any Member who had so clear a title to 
our respect because of those qualities of heart and brain which 
endear men to their fellows, as was the case with our late col- 
league from Alabama, in whose honor we have met to-day. 

Men may not justly be judged merely upon the record of their 
actual material achievements, but rather by the standard of 
their attitude toward humanity and their influence upon their 
generation. The question is not so much what has our departed 
brother done, but how has he borne himself as a man and a 
citizen? How has he met the requirements of daily life and the 
unceasing demands of his environment? Summing it all up, 
the inquirv is simply, Is the world better because he has lived? 
We are fortunate to-day in that from whatever angle we ap- 
proach the life and character of Ariosto A. Wiley we find fitting 
occasion for words of praise and kindliness. 

He was born in the State of Alabama — which through his 
long life he served so well — thirteen years before the outbreak 
of the great war. lie lived through the dark period after the 
war and long enough to see the proud South raise her head 
proudly again from the ashes and begin that splendid career 
of development and progress, in the midst of which she is going 



32 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

forward to-day. All the bitterness left by the war, in the midst 
of which he lived when a young and impressionable man, 
seemed to have no warping effect upon his cheerful and kindly 
disposition. He came to Congress a courteous and charming 
southern gentleman, and his presence and his labors here did 
much to prove that the Nation's scars have disappeared and 
that we are again a united people in thought and heart and 
purpose. 

Representative Wiley was truly a representative of his sec- 
tion and his State. Born in Alabama in 1848, he was educated 
at the Emory and Henry College, in Virginia, from which he 
was graduated in 1871. He was admitted to the bar in 1872, 
and thereafter he practiced law with great success in his home 
city of Montgomery. For the first eighteen years of his profes- 
sional life he was associated with an eminent jurist, a former 
judge of the Alabama supreme court, Samuel F. Rice. 

The fact that during the period of life when lawyers ordinarily 
handle the most trivial matters he was charged with the conduct 
of many important cases involving large interests, proved 
his capacity in his chosen profession and justified his rapid rise 
to the front rank of the local bar. In 1882 he was elected to 
the house of representatives of the State and gave his legal 
abilities to the service as chairman of the committee on revision 
of the laws and member of the committee on corporations. 
Thereafter, and until called to a broader field of activity, he 
served almost continuously in llie general assembly of the 
State, and his service was always signalized by the keenest inter- 
est in and devotion to the welfare of Alabama. An aptitude 
for military affairs caused liiiii to lake an active interest in the 
militia, in which for five years lie was captian of the Mont- 
gomery Mounted Rifies and a nieniber of Governor Seay's 
stafl". where again his knowledge of law stood him in good stead. 



Address of Mr. Denby, of Michigan 33 

He served as judge-advocate-gencral on the staff, with the rank 
of colonel of cavalry, and later he also served on the staff of 
Governors Oates, Johnston, and Sanford. 

When the war with Spain broke out and the loyal South 
sprang to the colors as earnestly as did the North, President 
jNIcKinley issued to Colonel Wiley a commission as lieutenant- 
colonel of the Fifth Regiment U. S. Volunteer Infantry, one of 
the immune regiments raised for special service during the war. 
He received his commission on June 17, the same date on which, 
ten years later, he died in Washington. Proceeding to Santiago 
de Cuba with his command, he was appointed by that superb 
soldier, General Lawton, his chief legal adviser, and subse- 
quently was made civil governor of Santiago. 

In this position Colonel WilEy rendered great service to his 
country by framing a constitution which appears to have met 
the approval of the people of the province and to have had a 
marked effect in aiding the permanent restoration of good 
order. It is enough to say in regard to the notable servnces 
rendered by Colonel Wiley during the war with Spain that he 
was recommended by so distinguished a regular officer as Gen- 
eral Lawton for appointment as brigadier-general, a position 
to which the early termination of the war and the muster out 
of his command prevented him from being appointed. There- 
after his district in his beloved State manifested its approval 
of the character and services of its distinguished citizen by 
electing him to the Fifty-seventh Congress and continuing to 
return him to Congress until his death. 

So reads the life record of Ariosto Wiley. It is a bare recital 
of facts. It does not, nor can we, fittingly characterize the 
personaHty through which shone forth a generous and lovable 
nature. What he did in a public way as a citizen, responsive 
to every call of duty, we can state, but we can not measure the 
86920 — H. Doc. 1544, 60-2 3 



34 Memorial Addresses: AriostoA. Wiley 

great good that his mere presence among his fellow-men accom- 
plished, because of his kindness, his courtesy, and his cheerful 
optimism. The iiu-n in Congress who knew him best all bear 
unvarying testimony to the sweetness and purity of his character 
and his lofty ideals as a citizen of the Republic. 

I take it as an honor to myself and to my State that 1 am 
to-dav permitted to lay this sprig of northern pine upon the 
tomb of Alabama's lamented statesman — Representative Wiley. 



Address of Mr. Heflin, of Alabama 35 



Address of Mr. Heflin, of Alabama 

Mr. Speaker : When I first knew Representative WilEy he 
was a member of the Alabama legislature, and I had the honor 
of serving with him in that splendid body of men. I soon recog- 
nized his sterling qualities and his great ability. From that 
time on until he was elected to the Congress of the United States 
1 watched his career with peculiar pride and interest. He was 
an earnest man, a man of high purpose, and but few men in my 
acquaintance could do the mental work and endure the physical 
strain incident thereto that this man could. He was full of 
energy and industry and was an untiring worker. Whatever 
his hands found to do he did it and did it well, and the bright 
star of a beautiful enthusiasm was ever shining over the path of 
his labors. 

As a lawyer, he ranked among the ablest and best of the great 
bar of Alabama. 

Mr. Speaker, it was the ambition of his life to represent his 
people in this the greatest lawmaking body in the w^orld, and 
in 1900 his people, with unanimous voice, bestowed upon him 
the distinguished honor that he had longed for, and in return 
for this honor he gave to his people the full measure of an able 
and faithful service. 

When I came here four years ago, he gave me a very cordial 
greeting and manifested an interest in and friendship for me 
that I shall never forget. For three years we lived in the same 
hotel and ate at the same table. He was my warm, personal 
friend, and my devotion to him grew stronger as my intimate 
knowledge of him increased and the time of my association with 
him lengthened. Ivvery throb of his big heart beat loyal to his 



36 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

friends. No taint of ingratitude or unfaithfulness found place 
in his broad and honest nature. He was a magnetic man, a 
prince in conversation, and, in fact, one of the most delightfully 
entertaining men that it has ever been my pleasure to know. 
He was a logical and eloquent speaker, a very studious man, and 
no Member of Congress devoted more of his time to study and 
to his labors here than did this lamented and beloved Alabamian. 
In niv judgment, he overtaxed his strength. Any cause that he 
espoused had in him an able, earnest, and fearless champion, 
He was a splendid type of the southern gentleman — courtly, gal- 
lant, and brave. He loved the South, and no man living could 
describe her beauty and glory better than he. He caught the 
song of her rills and the music of her birds, and these, mingling 
together, ever sounded in his soul. There was sunshine in his 
manner, and the bright sparkle of good cheer was always in his 
eye; and back of it all beat the big heart of a sincere, manly 
man. He loved life and enjoyed it to the full; he dwelt on its 
bright side and contributed his full share to the fund of good 
cheer and happiness of those with whom he came in contact. 
He was a painstaking, industrious, able, and faithful represen- 
tative of his people. 

Mr. Speaker, we come here from the various walks of life, 
come in health and strength, and in the whirl of our routine 
labors seem to forget that — 

Death rides on every passing breeze, 
He lurks in every flower. 

This grim monster is no respecter of persons; the statesman 
delving into the science of government ami pleading for the 
enforcement of the laws of justice; the minister preaching the 
gospel unto the least of these, ni\- brethren; the soldier with 
drawn sword, defending his count rv; the physician l)attling with 
the germs of disease; the teacher with his pupil; th(.- merchant 



Address of Mr. Heflin, of Alabama 37 

in his store; and the farmer in his field, aye, the mother and 
and infant at the peaceful fireside, all must quit this tenement 
of clay when the death angel comes. Voices that we heard in 
this Hall just a little while ago are still, and bright eyes into 
which we looked are closed forever. Forms that moved in vigor 
and health here, our friends and colleagues, are cold in the icy 
arms of Death. Here in the bustle and stir of things, in the 
midst of a life that is never still, we labor and wc lift our voices 
in advocacy of the measures that we believe to be right, and 
our words and votes are recorded in the great record of this 
great lawmaking body. On and on the wheels of national legis- 
lation turn. ]\Iorning after morning the clear voice of the 
Speaker is heard : 

The House will be in order, and the Chaplain will open with prayer. 

Ever and anon in the Chaplain's prayer we hear him invoking 
God's blessings upon the bereaved ones of another Member of 
Congress, dead, and we realize the truth of the scripture: 

In the midst of life we are in death. 

Mr. Speaker, during ^Ir. Wiley's last illness his loving wife — 
one of the noblest types of true and beautiful womanhood — 
the woman who had been his good angel in sunshine and in 
shadow, was there, lovingly and tenderly ministering to every 
want. In her and in his manly son Noble, and in his devoted 
brother Oliver, who succeeds him here, the star of his affection 
was fixed and immovable, save by the hand of death. I be- 
lieve that he realized that his end was near. Not long before 
he passed over the river, in a most feeling way he repeated to 
me the last words of Judge Rice, of Alabama, who was his law 
partner when he died. He talked of the Judge's hope of im- 
mortality, and described him rising from his pillow, exclaiming 
in animated delight: "The city, the beautiful city." 



38 Memcrrial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

Mr. Speaker, if the man who loves his fellow-man and adorns 
his daily life with the jewels of good deeds and contributes 
all in his power to human happiness, to truth, justice, and right 
finds eternal rest, my friend, Congressman Wilev, has joined 
his good friend and former law partner. Judge Rice, in that 
"beautiful citv not made with hands." 



Address of Mr. Gordon, of Tennessee 39 



Address of Mr. Gordon, of Tennessee 

Mr. Speaker: In attempting to exercise the esteemed privi- 
lege accorded me in these memorial ceremonies I remark that 
the flowers fade, the leaves fall, and men die. But what men 
are, what they think and say and do, does not, and should not, 
always die with them. 

It was said in the olden time, "Debimur morti nos, nos- 
traque;" that is, "We owe ourselves and all we are and have 
to death." But with this solemn declaration of the pagan 
philosopher we can not wholly agree. It is plaintively true 
that all who live are doomed to die. From that dread decree 
there is no appeal. But while it is true that the physical man 
perishes and passes by transmutation into other forms of mat- 
ter, it is equally true that what he has thought and said and 
wrought is not always subject to annihilation and oblivion at 
the hands of the relentless monarch of the tomb. While the 
tangible and bodily man falls and vanishes from human view, 
the mental, the ethical, and the executive man continues to 
live and act in the record he has made. x\nd so to-day, while 
honoring his name and memory, we would, with melancholy 
pleasure, briefly enumerate some of the principles, sentiments, 
and virtues that actuated and adorned the life, and recount 
some of the services that distinguished the career of our late 
lamented friend and colleague, the Hon. Ariosto Appling 
Wiley, who at the time of his death, June 17, 1908, represented 
as a ]\Iember of this illustrious body the second district of the 
Commonwealth of Alabama. 



40 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

I say briefly, bt-cause I had not the honor and pleasure of an 
extended or intimate acquaintance with our departed friend. 
But during the time I knew him and served with him as a mem- 
ber of the Committee of this House on MiHtary Affairs, extend- 
ing through some months, I was especially impressed with his 
tranquil dignity of character, uniform but quiet urbanity of 
manner, and a pronounced gravity of demeanor. I have since 
supposed that his deep seriousness was superinduced by a sense 
of declining health and apprehensions of impending dissolution. 

His varied literary attainments, his legal acquirements — 
being a lawyer by profession — his active energy, laudable ambi- 
tion, punctilious integrity of character, and commanding social 
position all combined to make him the recipient alike of popular 
admiration and esteem, and of public honors, trusts, and re- 
sponsibilities. And so it was for nearly twenty years he was 
almost continuously a member of the Alabama legislature, 
ser\'ing in both houses of that body and being chairman of the 
judiciary committees in each; was more than once a delegate to 
represent his State in the Democratic national convention, and 
was presidential elector in tlie national campaign in 1SS4. In 
1898 he was commissioned a lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth 
Regiment U. S. Volunteer Infantry in the Spanish war, ser\'ed 
nearly a year in Cuba, acting the greater part of that time as 
chief of General Lawton's staff and as civil governor of the 
eastern Province. Colonel W'ii.ky was elected to the Fifty- 
seventh, Fifty-eighth, Fifty-ninth, and Sixtieth Congresses, and 
died in the eighth year of his incumbency in olir great National 
Legislature. 

And here I remark that in our estimate it is a distinctive 
and distinguished honor for any man to represent directly and 
immediately 200,000, and indirectly and remotely more than 
80,000,000 of people in llu- lawmaking assembly and guiding 



Address of Mr. Gordon, of Tennessee 41 

power of this young but mighty, imposing, and expanding Re- 
public. Our colleague died crowned with that exceptional dis- 
tinction. And it was a delicate, a beautiful, and significant 
tribute to his name and memory when his brother, the Hon. 
Oliver C. Wiley, was selected by the unanimous voice of his 
bereaved constituency to serve out the unexpired term for which 
he had been elected. What a gratifying evidence this is of the 
esteem in which he was held and of the influence he has left 
upon those who had known and honored him and whom he had 
loved and served so well. And thus was illustrated what was 
said in the beginning, namely, that while the physical man 
perishes and passes, his example, his deeds, his work, and his 
worth live after him. The best evidence of a man's merit is the 
influence he leaves upon the community in which he lives — an 
influence that may be happily transmitted from generation to 
generation. 

To summarize: Our lamented colleague was a refined and 
cultured gentleman, a true and trusted friend, an exemplary and 
leading citizen, an accomplished and successful lawyer, an able 
and conscientious legislator, an ardent patriot, and a gallant 
soldier. 

Finally, when all is said and done here, when we have ren- 
dered the last tributes of love and honor to the memorv of our 
sacred dead, we are prone to philosophize upon what, if any, 
of another life may yet come to them and eventuallv to our- 
selves. But reflection soon tells us that the besrinnine and 
end of life are mysteries too deep for human thought to fathom 
and too inscrutable for human wisdom to illumine. "If a 
man die, shall he live again," was the troubled inquiry of the 
prophet of old. And so it would appear that the infant of an 
hour has as much definite knowledge of the whence and whither 
of all things as the profoundest philosopher, propagandist, 



42 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

cosmogonist, or psychologist that has ever hved or ever died. 
And in our ignorance and bUndness we cry out: "Whence did 
we come and whither are we going?" And the despairing 
answer comes back : ' ' We know not ! We know not ! We know 
not!" And again we cry out: "Where are philosophy and 
reason]* Can they give us no light?" Philosophy and reason? 
Why, they have encountered the mystery of the origin and 
end of all things, have made noble and valiant efforts for light, 
but as often have been baffled and beaten, and have fled the 
field of inquiry in despair. Is there nothing, then, to light 
and cheer our darkened way? Yes I Yes! Hope fondly 
whispers and Christian faith earnestly insists that there is a 
higher, a better, and more beautiful existence beyond this life. 
And if there is, as we believe, we trust that the departed spirit 
of our honored colleague is in that radiant realm — 

Where the faded flower shall freshen, 

Freshen never more to fade; 
Where the shaded sky shall brighten, 

Brighten never more to shade. 
Where the sun blaze never scorches; 

Where the star beams cease to chill; 
Where no tempest stirs the echoes 

Of the wood or wave or liill. 
Where no shadow shall bewilder; 

Where life's vain parade is o'er; 
Where the sleep of sin is broken; 

And the dreamer dreams no more. 



Address of Mr. Craig, of Alabama 43 



Address of Mr. Craig, of Alabama 

Mr. Speaker : Alabama has been peculiarly stricken in the 
recent past. Since the beginning of the Sixtieth Congress she 
has mourned the death of two Senators and a Representative 
in Congress. Less than a year ago, sir, we met in this Hall to 
pay tribute to the memory of our venerable Senators, John T. 
Morgan and Edmund Winston Pettus. To-day we meet to 
honor the memory of our distinguished colleague, who joined 
with us in those tributes, but who himself was destined in a 
short time to follow them to that land of rest and happiness 
across the dark Valley of Death. 

It is not for us, by our poor words, to consecrate to the State 
and nation that we love so well the life, works, and character 
of our late colleague, Ariosto A. Wiley, for from his earliest 
manhood his life, his works, his character, in all that he thought 
and said, in all that he did. and in the performance of every 
duty, were consecrated to the State; and it is only left for us, 
in our weak way, to pay to him a tribute born of our love for 
the man and inspired by our admiration of his unwavering 
loyalty to his country and his duty, and his magnificent ability 
to represent in the highest and noblest manner the people of the 
whole nation as well as those of his own district. 

Beginning his public services as a representative in the leg- 
islature of Alabama from :\Iontgomery County when he was but 
a young man, he was constantly, up to the time of his death, 
laboring in the cause of humanity and serving his country with 
undoubted honesty of purpose and ever-increasing zeal. As 
naturally as summer follows spring, his eighteen years of splen- 
did service in the state senate and house of representatives of 



44 Memorial Addresses: Ariosio A. Wiley 

the State of Alabama carried him into the broader fields of leo-is- 
lative endeavor in the Congress of the nation. His marked 
legal ability, his splendidly trained mind, and his knowledge of 
men and of the affairs of state made of him at all times a legis- 
lator of unsurpassed ability, while his love of truth and honor 
led him unerringly in the paths of legislative righteousness so 
dear to the hearts of the American people. \\'e who ser\-ed with 
him know how untiring he was in the ser\-ice of his constitu- 
ents. From morning until night he was looking after their 
interests in the different departments of the Government, 
before committees, and in the House; and night after night he 
could be found in his office continuing his labors when others 
had gone to rest, answering the correspondence of the humblest 
constituent as carefully and with as much pains as he would 
that of the most prominent and influential citizen of his district. 

But his influence was felt not alone at the bar and in leeis- 
lativc halls. He believed that every American citizen owed 
to his country military as well as civil ser\nce. Applving that 
theor\- to himself, he served many years in the National Guard 
of Alabama. For five years he was captain of a troop of cav- 
alry in Montgomery; and he ser\'ed with the rank of colonel 
on the staffs of four governors of the State of Alabama. 

Being thus fitted, is it strange that he should have answered 
the call to arms in 1898? Mr. Speaker, when the explosion in 
Habana Harbor which carried the Maine and her noble crew to 
the bottom of the ocean was answered in this countrv bv the 
sound of the war trumpet, and our martyred President, William 
McKinley, flung to the breezes the Stars and Stripes and in the 
name of God and humanity called upon tlie countrv for volun- 
teers, the men who had worn the blue, the men who had worn 
the gray, and their sons nut under that banner as brothers, and 
aniDiii: tluin was Akiosto A. Wii.icv offering his services to his 



Address of Mr. Craig, of Alabama 45 

country. His ability was at once recognized by the President. 
He was made lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth U. S. Immune Regi- 
ment . In this capacity he served an enlistment of eleven months 
in Cuba, his ability being recognized to such an extent that he 
was made the legal adviser of General Lawton and chief of his 
staff. 

His influence in Cuba will probably be felt longest because of 
the splendid service he rendered that country and the world in 
the establishment of a civil government for the eastern province 
of that island, where he cooperated with Gen. Leonard Wood in 
bringing about a modern civil government, in accordance with 
American ideas, in a country that had known nothing but 
Spanish oppression and native insurrection for centuries. 

It is sad, indeed, to see a life such as his cut off in its prime, 
and it brings home to us in most forcible fashion the fact that, 
although our careers are what we make them, we know not the 
time nor the place of their ending. 

It is a source of great gratification to us who knew and served 
with Colonel Wiley, that the people of his district unanimously 
selected his distinguished brother, O. C. Wiley, to finish out the 
term in this Congress to which he himself had been elected. In 
so doing the people of the second district of Alabama fittingly 
recognized the worth and ability of our present colleague, while, 
at the same time, paying a just and deserv^ed tribute to his 
illustrious brother. 

Mr. Speaker, Alabama mourns with the bereaved family of 
Colonel Wiley, and the whole nation pays to him a just and 
deserved tribute for his magnificent service and his sterling 
character. 



46 Memorial Addresses: Ariosio A. Wiley 



Address of Mr. Hobson, of Alabama 

Mr. Speaker : We come to-day to pay tribute to the memory 
of one whom the Angel of Death has recently removed from 



among us. 



The hfe and work of our late colleague, Hon. A. A. Wiley, 
has been dwelt upon by those who have already spoken, so I 
will only briefly mention a few of the characteristic traits of 
this distinguished son of our State. Xo one came within the 
range of his acquaintance but was impressed with his sympa- 
thetic kindliness. So generous and open-hearted was his nature 
that he almost seemed to radiate kindness, good will, and cheer- 
fulness; for, indeed, he was one who loved his fellow-men as 
he was in turn loved by them. 

Strong, courageous, and manly, he was never so busy that he 
would not turn aside to say a kind word or do a generous deed. 
Joined with his kindly sympathy was another characteristic for 
which he was noted— that of loyalty. Loyal to friend and coun- 
try, he never failed to respond when either needed his serA-ices. 
Having prepared himself for usefulness to his country in time 
of stress by long service in the National Guard of Alabama, he 
early answered the call for volunteers to defend llie nation's 
honor in the war with Spain. During this brief but trying con- 
flict I met him in Cuba and can bear personal testimony to his 
bravery and untiring devotion to duty. As legal adviser to 
General Lawton and chief of his staff", he rendered service to 
his country of which Alabama has a right to be justly proud. 

His work toward establishing the civil government in Cuba 
in accordance with the principles of enlightened libert\- showed 



Address of Mr. Hobson, of Alabama 47 

him to be possessed of a constructive statesmanship equaled by 
few men of this generation. His career in the halls of the Ala- 
bama legislature and the National Congress was one of energetic 
usefulness, and the record of his service is praised so high that 
words can not add to it. 

As a man, a soldier, and a statesman his name and fame will 
be perpetuated in the annals of Alabama and of our country. 



48 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 



Address of Mr. Wiluams, of Mississippi 

Mr. Speaker: Ariosto Appling Wiley, the friend of all 
those who would be friendly, a man who obeyed Solomon's 
injunction, "He that hath friends must show himself friendly," 
and the subject of this sketch, was born in Barbour County, Ala., 
in November, 1 848. He was too young to enter the Confederate 
army, otherwise, judging him by his whole private and public 
record, he would have been found carrying a musket for his 
State, right or wrong, and for the historic cause of local self- 
government. 

His funeral took place in Oakland Cemetery, near the site of 
the first capital of the Confederacy, Montgomery, Ala., on Satur- 
day, June 20, 1908, his death liaving come after many days of 
sickness and suffering at Hot Springs, Va., on the 17th day of 
June, 1908, and just two days after the nomination by the 
Republican party of William Howard Taft for the Presidency 
of the United States. Nothing better illustrates the broad 
national and American and patriotic character of Mr. Wiley 
than the fact that this cultured and experienced nominee of an 
opposing party, even in the moment of success and triumph, 
turned aside to send tliis message to the city of Montgomery 
and to the people of the Second Congressional District of 
Alabama : 

Colonel Wiley was a patriot and a gentleman, with all the graces of 
good-fellowship tliat made him most dear to his friends. * * * I 
extend my sympatliy to his constituents, who are deprived in his death of 
a iiiD'^l able, worthy, and conscientious Representative in Congress. 

At the beginning of liis congressional career, at a dinner 
celebrating liis nomination 1)\' the Democratic party, Colonel 



Address of Mr. Williams, of Mississippi 49 

Gates, an officer in the Confederate army, a former Representa- 
tive in Congress, and later a governor of Alabama, had said : 

Wiley is one of the best fitted men to go to Congress that I ever knew. 
He will, in my opinitm, make an ideal Congressman. 

Thus the opinion of a great Republican at the close and of a 
distinguished Democrat at the opening of his political career 
as a federal legislator were in remarkable and true accord. 
Before coming to Washington he had had experience and train- 
ing as a legislator, having been, since 1 882 , almost continuously in 
the house or the senate of the Alabama legislature, and having 
there taken and held a prominent place, as was demonstrated 
by the fact that he was chairman of the judiciary committee in 
both branches of the State lawmaking body. 

The confidence of his people in him was further shown by 
the fact of his choice by them as a delegate to two national 
Democratic conventions and as a presidential elector. 

He became a Member of this august body at the convening 
of the Fifty-seventh Congress, and was reelected to the Fifty- 
eighth, Fifty-ninth, and Sixtieth Congresses, the last time 
defeating a strongly organized opposition by a vote of nearly 
2 to I , although in bed sick and unable either to go home to 
"meet his enemies in the gate" or to carry on a campaign by 
correspondence. I am glad that it was I who had the honor 
of recommending him to the Speaker for appointment on two 
committees — on the Militia and on Military Affairs — and he did 
good service in both places, having, prior to his entrance into 
this body, had much experience and equipment by long and 
sympathetic identification with the national guard and the 
United States Army. 

He was first a captain of a cavalry troop of the Alabama 
National Guard and later a lieutenant -colonel commanding the 
Second Regiment of Infantry of the Alabama National Guard, 
86920 — H. Doc. 1544. 'if>-- 4 



50 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

and still later ser\'ed in Cuba as lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth 
Alabama, U. S. Army, being one of the so-called "immune 
regiments. " Here his energy, knowledge, and efficiency recom- 
mended him to General Lawton, who made him his chief 
of staff. His knowledge of law and of military afifairs naturally 
suggested his appointment as governor of the Eastern Province 
in Cuba, in which position he did valuable work of a construc- 
tive and reconstructive character. 

His identification with military affairs was made all the more 
complete and strenuous by the fact that one of his boys had 
chosen arms as a profession and career — Lieut. Noble J. Wiley, 
Fifth Artillery, U. S. Army. 

Colonel Wiley graduated from Emory and Henry College, 
Virginia, and went soon afterwards to the bar, having mean- 
while studied law. Like so many southern men, soon after 
the war he took up his life-work penniless. It is said that 
when he moved to Montgomery and "hung out his shingle" 
he had just $30, and that yet he never wrote home for more, but 
managed to forge his own way from this start without further 
financially embarrassing his family. 

His marriage to Miss Noble, of Montgomery County, counted 
for much in his happiness and success. Xo man liad a sweeter, 
more attractive, or more aidful and sympathetic helpmate. It 
is one of the regrets of my life that, allhough appointed by the 
Speaker as one of the congressional committee to attend his 
funeral cortege, I was not able to be present and personally 
speak a weak but sincere and earnest word of condolence and 
svmpathy to this distressed and widowed lady. I was far away 
at Pine HhifT, .Vrk.. where I had been engaged to deliver a 
lecture. 

AriosT( ) Wtt.kv was earnest, life-loving, full of geniality, fond 
to extravagance of wife, son, graiuU-hildren, and friends; open- 
hearted and open-handed to a fault. 



Address of Mr. Williams, of Mississippi 51 

Energy and "diligence in business," the virtue recommended 
by St. Paul, were perhaps his salient characteristics. He was a 
"human steam engine." While he preached nothing concern- 
ing a strenuous life, he lived it. He was simply untiring in his 
attention to his constituents' letters, wants, and calls, and to 
the detail work for them in the departments. His friends he 
ser\^ed to the full length of his cable tow, and sometimes to its 
stretching. The minister who read the service over his grave 
referred feeUngly "to his ability to make friends and to hold 
them." This best and most useful of all abihties he possessed 
in an exceptionally high degree. Other abilities he was not 
lacking in. The same minister— the Rev. Charies A. vStakeley— 
spoke of him as a "pillar which had fallen— a pillar of good 
deeds, of humanity, of brains, of leadership." His death has 
left a void in his city, his State, and in this body, and a heart- 
ache, never to be wholly cured, for his friends and his family. 

The sun shone brightly on the day of his funeral, as it is apt to 
do on the funeral days of any of us, for nature takes no note 
of our births or deaths. It concerns itself not with us. And 
yet a generous human life is not utteriy insignificant— far from 
it. In a moral and mental sense it is more significant than sun 
or stars, because it long outendures material things in that 
part of duration which we call eternity, if not in that part of 
duration which we call time. I have an indestructible faith 
in the sweet doctrine of the author of Annabel Lee, the doc- 
trine of the inseparability of immortal souls. This is the sole 
rational solace of wife, child, brother, or friend. 



52 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 



Address of Mr. Stevens, of Minnesota 

Though modest, on his unembarrassed brow 
Nature has written — Gentleman. 

No one could have been associated with our late colleague, 
Col. A. A. Wiley, and not fail to have for him a sincere personal 
regard and a profound respect for his character and manliness. 
It was my privilege to know him as a member of the Committee 
on MiUtary Affairs of this House, and from the first, I think, 
we all realized that his personal qualities and his extended and 
varied experience would not only be a source of enjoyment to 
his associates, but also of continuing and increasing value to 
his CQuntry. In addition, we always knew that his convic- 
tions were well grounded, and firm as the everlasting hills, 
and that he could always be depended upon to stand for what 
he conceived would be of lasting and general benefit to his 
countrymen. He was ever ready to devote himself to the 
cause in which he believed, whether in the field, in the forum, 
in the legislative halls, or in the seclusion of important work of 
the committees of which he was a member. But wherever he 
would be found and whatever his occupation, he always dis- 
played those qualities of manliness and patriotism which won 
so strongly for him our sincere personal respect and affection. 

Ihe membership of this House is so large and the mass of 
work before it so great and the pressure for action so tremen- 
dous that the vast majority of its membership always realizes that 
the best and indeed only proper way to perform the important 
duties of our high office is to diligently and intelligently attend 
to the various details as they may arise in the daily business 



Address of Mr. Stevens, of Minnesota 53 

which comes to us. The true and sincere Representative is 
aware of this and daily adds his mite of duty well done to 
the volume of the similar services of his colleagues. This 
constitutes the bulk of the legislation and administration which 
control the activities and destinies of our 90,000,000 of people. 
The people do not always comprehend the immense importance 
and amount of those duties, manv of them trivial, yet which 
must be performed, if our people shall be satisfied and en- 
couraged to continue in their pathway of progress and pros- 
perity. Colonel Wiley appreciated this duty and necessity 
to the fullest extent and devoted himself assiduously and con- 
scientiously to the real needs of his people. He was proud of 
their achievements and wonderful successes, and he labored 
unceasingly that all the assistance the Federal Government 
could render in its various branches and departments should be 
made available to those under his supervision. He was equally 
ready to devote himself for other sections or individuals 
wherever he could ser\^e them in this broad land. This liber- 
aUty of action and generosity of spirit gradually gave him an 
influence and standing among his colleagues which must have 
been a source of great satisfaction to himself and redounded 
always to the welfare of his own people; because, after all, in 
most cases it is the real ser\-ice to the people which will com- 
mend the Representative to his own constituents at home and 
to his colleagues in the House. 

The abiding memories of our associates when they depart 
from us are not always from the public and official work they 
may do as for the qualities of themselves which they con- 
tribute to our membership. It is here that Colonel Wiley will 
long leave his impress upon those of us who were associated 
with him intimately within the committee room or less closely 
upon the floor. His constant courtesy and unfailing kindliness 



54 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

and good nature, his frankness and manliness and courage, his 
broad and liberal views of life and duty, and his lofty ideals of 
private and public character and ser\4ce gave him always a 
position among his fellows of increasing respect and tender 
affection. 

Stricken in life's prime, in the fullness of a splendid useful- 
ness and fame, he left to his family a heritage 'more precious 
than gold and a monument more enduring than brass." 

When to last sleep we give ourselves away, 

And in a dream, as in a fairy bark 

Drift on and on through the enchanted dark 

To purple daybreak, Httle thought we pay 

To that sweet, bitter word we knew by day. 

We are clean quit of it, as is a lark 

So high in heaven no human eye can make 

The thin, swift pinion clearing through the gray. 



Address of Mr. Ellerbe, of South Carolina 55 



Address of Mr. Ellerbe, of South Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: We come this morning to pay a last tribute to 
one who, less than a year ago, walked among us overflowing 
with energy, shedding on all around him the genial rays of his 
personality. 

A man ambitious to achieve, not because of self-interest, but 
because he was the Representative of a people who had honored 
and trusted him, and who looked to him for the preservation of 
the best interests of the State he loved and served. Even 
while Colonel WilEy lay upon his couch of pain here in Wash- 
ington his constituents were proving their love and appreciation 
by giving him an overwhelming majority over those who sought 
his place. 

That love and approbation must have been sweetest balm to 
him in the hours when his very soul was tried with suffering. 
Colonel Wiley has been called the "ideal Congressman," and 
the title was earned by the broad statesmanlike qualities of 
the man, not by success in the usual political methods. He 
did Httle campaigning, it is said. Instead he devoted his time 
to the accomplishment of benefits for his district and State, 
and his people recognizing that deeds meant more than words, 
said to him again and again at the ballot box — 

Well done, thou good and faithful servant. 

Of Colonel Wiley's executive abiUty there can be no doubt. 
Wherever he went it was recognized and used. 

Responding to his country's first call for arms after the 
tragedy of the Maine, he was sent to Cuba as lieutenant-colonel 
of the immune regiment intended for immediate service. But 



56 Memorial Addresses: AriostoA. Wiley 

after Santiago was captured the soldier was once more merged 
into the legislator, and Colonel Wilev was commissioned to 
draw up the code of laws established in that Province. Upon 
his return from Cuba he again took up his public career. It 
would have been almost impossible for a man of Colonel 
Wiley's temperament and talents to have avoided the field of 
politics. 

In Washington his friends included all who knew him, from 
the President and President-elect to the poorest office seeker 
who came asking favors, which, when possible, were always 
granted. 

Here he lived and labored until stricken by the hand of 
disease. 

Poets for ages have sung of the sadness of death when it 
comes to a man full of life and vigor, ready and willing to do a 
man's part in the world of men. 

Yet the Greeks personified Death by a beautiful boy crowned 
with immortal youth, and, somehow, that ideal seems fitting. 
It is more glorious to pass from the world ere the hand of Time 
has dimmed the eye or rendered the footstep unsteady; more 
glorious to pass into the land where each shall in fullest meas- 
ure achieve his best ambition while that ambition is still thrill- 
ing his entire being. 

Our friend, the soldier-statesman, has answered "the one 
clear call," and his bark has set forth to sea, but his life is the 
heritage of those he has left behind. The memory of his genial 
nature will be with us until to us, as to him, it comes, that the 
golden bowl shall be broken and the silver cord be loosed. 



Address of Mr. Sherwood, of Ohio 57 



Address of Mr. Sherwood, of Omo 

Mr. Speaker: Let me add a respectful tribute to the many 
splendid eulogies on our departed friend; eulogies by those 
who knew him best. My acquaintance with Colonel WiLEY 
commenced with the opening of this Congress, in the December 
of 1907, in the Committee on Military Affairs. I was not long 
in his company until I appreciated his many manly qualities of 
mind and heart and his sincere and earnest desire as a legis- 
lator to promote right legislation. 

I discovered eariy that he was a man of deep sympathy for 
his fellows and high ideals. Furthermore, his readv grasp of 
subjects under discussion in the committee and his concise and 
lucid presentation of his ideas impressed me from the first with 
the conviction that Colonel Wiley was not only strong in the 
ethical qualities, but a well-rounded and matured mental 

athlete. 

The able and accomplished gentlemen of the Alabama dele- 
gation who have preceded me to-day have given a comprehen- 
sive recital of the successful public career of Colonel WilEy, to 
which I can add nothing. What I hope to say is that his 
example as a pubUc man; his devotion to his people and his 
native State; his scope of vision to embrace his whole country 
in patriotic love; his courage to do the right, as he had knowl- 
edo-e to know^ the right, make his untimely death a calamity to 
his State and country. 

We have never yet had in this country too many men of heart 
and brains and morals and courage in public life, and at no 
period in our history have men of this type been more needed 
than now. No time in our history has there ever been a more 



>,S Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

urgent demand for just men of courage, patriotism, and ability 

on the floor of Congress. 

It was our own poet of patriotism, Fitz-Greene Halleck, who 

wrote, in Marco Bozzaris, this pathetic and heartrending couplet : 

Come to the bridal chamber, Death! 

Come to the mother when she feels 
For the first time her first-born's breath! * * * 
And thou art terrible! 

But mf)ri.' tcrril)lL- is the loss of a fully equipped man, men- 
tally and morally, because his loss is not only to the family, the 
wife, the child, but to the State. The one loss to the other is 
as the rosebud compared with the full-blown rose, grown fra- 
grant and beautiful in God's sunshine. And the example of a 
well-rounded man, of power and influence for the good of his 
fellow-man, does not attach to the new-born child. 

One of the greatest of Athenian philosophers said : 

Most of all, fellow-citizens, if your sons ask whose example they shall 
imitate, what will you say.' For you know well it is not music, nor the 
gymnasium, nor the schools that mold young men. It is much more the 
public proclamation, the public example. If you take one whose life has 
no high purpose and crown him in the theater, every boy who sees it is 
corrupted. Beware, therefore, Athenians, remembering jKisterity will 
rejudge your judgment, and that the character of a city is determined by 
the character of the men it crowns. 

Two thousand years have elapsed since this classic was 
uttered, and it is still vital and valuable. The hope and ambi- 
tion of our young men of to-day is fostered and fed bv the 
character of the men the peoplr nf tliis Republic send into our 
highest legislative body. Colonel Wiley's example is a potent 
teacher to the young men of his district and his State. Example 
teaches without a tongue. It is silent, but its action for good 
is more forcible than words, however eloquent. 

And I must not fail to connnend Colonel Wiley's patriotism. 
Ik- won his eagles in the war with vSpain, but his patriotism is 
in harmonv with the humane theorv that the future of this 



Address of Mr. Sherwood, of Ohio 59 

country depends more upon the virtue and purposes of the 

people than upon a bannered army with shotted guns. On this 

topic let me dwell until I close this modest tribute to this 

prescient and beloved son of Alabama. 

In the throes of human contention and fierce ambition came- 

that mighty conflict of 1 861-1865, from which a new nation 

was born, and now, after long years, when the bitterness of 

strife has vanished, and we can calmly recount the common 

deeds of valor and devotion, the immortal flower song of the 

young EngHsh poet, James Collins, of over a century and a half 

ago, comes as a sweet solace to blossom in our hearts and lives: 

How sleep the brave who sing to rest, 
By all their country's wishes blest. 
When spring with dewy fingers cold 
Returns to deck each hallowed mold. 
There honor comes a pilgrim gray 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay. 

Never before has there been such a spectacle in all the ages 
since history was born out of the womb of the dead centuries 
as when on ^lemorial Days, with the rose and the lily North 
and the lotus and the magnolia South, the men who wore the 
blue and the men who wore the gray clasp hands in fraternal 
kinship, remembering that God is good, and consecrating them- 
selves to fraternity and unity and a mighty future. 

It was Charlotte Corday who said that — 

All true patriots will meet in the next world. 

And Acton, a much greater prophet of human destiny, says: 

No nation can expect to prosper and become great without ardent and 
devoted patriotism. 

And let us, here in this historic Chamber, reconsecrate our- 
selves to that patriotism that was always so fer\^ently typified 
in our dead friend — a statesman whose association and friend- 
ship added to our joys of living, and whose character and 
example gave us hope for higher ideals in government. 



6o Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 



Address of Mr. Clayton, of Alabama 

Mr. Speaker: The Hon. Ariosto Appling Wiley made his 
advent into federal politics at the beginning of the first session 
of the Fifty-seventh Congress, on the first Monday in December, 
1901. He brought with him a long and successful experience 
in the public affairs of his State, and his subsequent highly credit- 
able conduct fully justified the wisdom of his constituents in 
retaining him as their Representative until the end of his 
earthlv career, which occurred on June 17. 1908. 

Our deceased friend was born November 6, 1848, at Clayton, 
in the county of Barbour, in the State of Alabama. When i 
year of age he moved with his parents to Troy, Pike County, in 
that State, and there the son was reared to manhood. He 
received a classical education, having been graduated at Emory 
and Henrv College, \'irginia, an old and renowned institution, 
in June 1871. Soon thereafter he read law, was admitted to the 
bar, and located in the city of Montgomery, the capital of his 
State, and there he began the practice of law in 1872. Early in 
his professional career he became the partner of the eminent 
jurist and celebrated wit, Judge Samuel F. Rice, formerly the 
chief justice of the supreme court of Alabama. This partner- 
ship lasted eighteen years, and until it was terminated by the 
death of Judge Rice. 

The abilitv and sjilendid equipment of our friend, wliose 
untimclv departure we now lament, enabled him in almost the 
beginning of his work as a lawyer to be trusted with many im- 
portant matters and litigation celebrated in tlK' court annals of 
his State. He was several times a member of the legislature of 
Alabama, having been a member of the house of representatives 



Address of Mr. Clayton, of Alabama 6i 

and of the senate, and he was at all times while there a conspicu- 
ously industrious, able, useful, and influential public ser\'ant, 
and he left his impress upon many of the laws of his native and 
beloved Commonwealth. 

The love of our friend WilEY for the law was hardly stronger 
than his love for the mihtary, for he was possessed of the 
martial spirit and admired the glory of the field as intensely as 
the renown of the forum. He was at one time judge-advocate- 
general in the state military establishment, and afterwards 
served as its inspector-general and then twice as its chief of 
ordnance. When the war between the United States and Spain 
had been begun. President McKinley, recognizing the valuable 
military experience and superior qualifications of Colonel 
Wiley, appointed him Heutenant-colonel of the Fifth Regiment 
of United States Volunteer Infantry, one of the so-called 
"immune regiments" organized under special act of Congress. 

On June 17, 1898, he went with his command to Santiago de 
Cuba, his regiment arriving there just after the battle of San 
Juan Hill. He had been there only a short while when General 
Lawton, of the United States Army, the commander of that 
department, appreciating his extensive mihtary experience 
and his superior attainments, appointed him his chief legal 
adviser. 

Subsequently Colonel Wiley was assigned to the duty of 
acting as civil governor of Santiago. While in this position he 
framed a constitution that pleased the people of that Province, 
and tended to harmonize all discordant elements among the 
Spaniards and Cubans there. He organized the courts, and 
contributed more than any other man to the restoration of law 
and order in the eastern part of the island of Cuba. General 
Lawton was so much impressed with Colonel Wiley's qualifica- 
tions and good work that he recommended his appointment to 



62 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

the office of brigadier-general, but the war ended before the 
recommendation could be acted on by the President. After 
eleven months' service in behalf of his country and away from 
home and loved ones, ho was mustered out when his country no 
longer needed his services as a soldier. 

This, Mr. Speaker, is a brief summary of the salient facts in 
the public life of our distinguished friend until he came and took 
his place in this body as the Representative of the people of the 
Second Congressional District of Alabama. What I shall say of 
his career here shall be no more than a short memorandum of a 
part only of his labors and accomplishments in behalf of the 
people of his district, State, and country. 

He was always thoughtful, industrious, and diligent in behalf 
of his immediate constituents, who so often and so signally 
delighted to honor him. 

When Colonel Wiley came to Congress there was not a rural 
free-delivery mail route in his district. At the time of his death 
there were more than a hunderd established through his efforts. 
He succeeded in having a soil survey of about one-third of his 
district made under the auspices of the state and federal authori- 
ties. His diligence resulted in numerous agricultural experi- 
ments for the benefit of the great farming interests of his district. 
He secured liberal appropriations by Congress for the Alabama 
Ri\er and other navigable waters in liis district. 

He introduced and had passed a l)ill that gave relief to nearly 
a thousand homesteaders and their families on public lands 
wliich had become involved on account oi the old land grant by 
Congress to aid in the construction i)f tin- Mobile and Girard 
Railroad. 'Phis is but a small part of his services to his im- 
mediate constituency. He rendered to his people prompt and 
efficient service in their nuiltitudinous private matters before 



Address of Mr. Clayton, of Alabama 63 

Congress and before the several executive departments of the 
Government. 

Mr. Speaker, it will be remembered gratefully by the surviv- 
ing confederate soldiers that through the efforts of our lamented 
friend a former distinguished Representative in this House, 
afterwards the governor of Alabama, and after that one of the 
old confederate soldiers commissioned by President McKinley 
as a brigadier-general of the United States Army in the volun- 
teer service, William C. Gates, was appointed by President 
Roosevelt to locate and to have the graves of confederate sol- 
diers who died in northern prisons appropriatelv marked. 

Moreover, Mr. Speaker, he was a faithful and well nigh a 
constant attendant upon the sessions of this House. He never 
neglected his duties before the committees of which he was a 
member. He was a conscientious and wise legislator, and did 
much good in constructive effort, particularly in the enactments 
pertaining to the military establishment. The proceedings of 
his committee, his conduct, and votes in the House furnish 
ample evidence of his great usefulness, and witness his contribu- 
tions to the legislation affecting the welfare of the country. 

Shortly before his death his people selected him for the fifth 
time as their Representative in Congress, and thereby accorded 
to him the meed of praise — 

Well done, thou good and faithful sen-ant. 

Here in this body his uniform urbanity, his ability, natural 
and acquired, and devotion to duty won for him a deserved and 
enviable reputation and the esteem of his associates. A con- 
spicuous attestation of the great respect in which he was held 
was the telegram of sympathy on account of his death which 
was sent by Mr. Taft, who was then Secretary of War and who 



64 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

will be inaugurated President on the 4th of next montli. With 

your indulgence, I shall read this telegram: 

Washington, June i~, igo8. 
The Advertiser, Montgomery, Ala.: 

I am greatly shocked to hear of the death of Colonel WiLEv, your Con- 
gressman. Colonel WiuEY was a patriot and a gentleman, with all the 
graces of good fellowship that made him most dear to his friends. 

He went with us on the Philippine party in 1905, and was beloved by 
all. He honored me with his warm friendship, and his death is a great 
personal loss. 

I extend inv sympathy to his constituents, who are deprived by his 
death of a most able, worthy, and conscientious Representative in 
Congress. 

\\ILLI.\.M H. T.\FT. 

That, Mr. vSpeakcr, is a just tribute from the gentleman who 
is now the foremost American citizen. Xo higher encomium 
can be pronounced than to say of our friend who has gone to the 
undiscovered country that he was "a patriot and a gentleman." 

Now, Mr. Speaker, you will permit me to indulge in some 
observations of a more personal nature. I was born in the 
same count v where our distinguished friend who has gone from 
amongst us first saw the light, and was reared within less than 
30 mills of the scene of his early youth. It was my good for- 
tune to know him intimately ever since I reached man's estate. 
I treasure most fondly and as a precious jewel the memory of 
this fact, and, therefore, the duty I perform here to-day is 
most melancholy to me. From time to time, Mr. Speaker, dur- 
ing mv experience in this House I have had occasion to speak on 
the life, character, and public services of one friend, then an- 
other friend, and then still another, and again another, but 
I was not as intimate witli any one of them nor indebted to 
an\ one of them for a friendship so long and unbroken, and I 
may say so sweet, as that frieiidsliip which existed between 
Ariosto Wilkv and myself I'or many years. 

It is a sweet reflection that this friendsliip was never dis- 
turbed for any moment during the Icmg years which it covered. 



Address of Mr. Clayton, of Alabama 65 

Often have I confided in him for his judgment and advice, and 
often it pleased me to render him friendly counsel and service. 
Perhaps I can truthfully say that, with the exception of his 
good brother who succeeded him in this Congress — and who has 
made an enviable record here during his short term — I knew 
Ariosto Wiley better than any other friend in Congress. My 
association with him always yielded me a large profit of pleas- 
ure. Accordingly, I can truthfully say that I stand here to 
discharge the most mournful duty that has ever confronted me 
while I have been a Member of this House. Would that I 
could portray what I believe to be a just estimate of this man, 
and speak a fitting tribute to his life, character, and public 
services. 

Mr. Speaker, let me refer to our friend in some of his other 
relations in life. He was the devoted son of fond parents. 
The devoted son became the devoted and affectionate husband 
and father. His love and solicitude for every member of his 
family, including his brother who succeeded him here, was 
touching and exquisitely beautiful. He was gentle, brave, con- 
siderate, generous, and unselfish. Often have I heard the 
prayer fall from his lips: 

Out of my selfish self, O lift me up. 

I have attempted to portray some of the features of the char- 
acter and career of this upright, noble man. He was scholarly, 
gifted with eloquence, and a learned and successful lawyer. He 
was a brave soldier and a true patriot. He was a wise and use- 
ful legislator. He was a valuable and faithful friend. He was 
a loving son, husband, father, and brother. His nature was 
gentle and his manner genial, and his heart was full of the 
tenderest and sublimest sentiments. 

He has gone from our midst. He has solved the mystery of 
death and has unraveled that other mystery which we call life. 
86920 — H. Doc. 1544, 60-2 5 



66 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

His manly demeanor furnished an example worthy of emulation. 
His bright smile is now a fond recollection. His cheerful voice 
is silenced forever, but abides with us as the memory of a sweet 
song that has been sung. After life's fitful fever he sleeps. His 
lofty soul has gone to its reward in the celestial life. 

He has done the work of a true man, 

Crown him, honor him, love him. 
Weep over him tears of women, 

Stoop manliest brows above him. 
For the warmest of hearts is frozen. 

The freest of hands is stilled, 
And the gap in our picked and chosen. 

The long years may not fill. 



Proceedings in the Senate 67 



Proceedings in the senate 

Tuesday, December 8, igo8. 
Mr. Johnston submitted the following resolution, which 
was read, considered by unanimous consent, and unanimously 
agreed to: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with deep sensibility the announce- 
ment of the death of Hon. Ariosto A. Wiley, late a Representative from 
the State of Alabama. 

Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect to the memory of the 
Representative whose death has been announced the Senate do now 
adjourn. 

The Vice-President. The question is on agreeing to the 
resolutions submitted by the Senator from Alabama. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to; and (at 2 o'clock 
p. m.) the Senate adjourned until to-morrow, Wednesday, De- 
cember 9, 1908, at 12 o'clock meridian. 

Mr. Johnston. Mr. President, I desire to give notice that 
on Saturday, February 27, I shall ask the Senate to consider 
resolutions commemorative of the life and character of Hon. 
Ariosto A. Wiley, late a Member of the House of Representa- 
tives from the State of Alabama. 

Saturday, February 2j, igog. 
The Senate met at 1 1 o'clock a. m. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Edward E. Hale, offered the following 
prayer: 

Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give 
every man according as his work shall be. 



68 Memorial Addresses: Ariosio A. Wiley 

Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have 
right to the tree of life, and mAiy enter in through the gates into the 
city. 

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were 
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not vuxde with 
hands, eternal in the heavens. 

Let us pray. 

Father, Thou hast taught us this b)- Thy word in all ages by 
Thy well-beloved Son. To-day we are to go back in memory 
to those who have served Thee here and are now serving Thee 
in the larger service of that other world. 

O God, be with us when we interpret history. Be with us 
Thou, when we look into the future to see what our own duty 
may be in these days that are before us. Show Thy ser\^ants in 
the Congress, show all persons in authority in the Nation, what 
it is to ser\'e the living God and to bring in Thy law for our law, 
Thy rule for our passion. Thy strength for our weakness, and 
Thy love to be with us always, that we may bear each other's 
burdens, that we may find the duty that comes next our hands, 
that we may enter into that service which is perfect freedom. 

We ask it as Thine own children. 

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy 
kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as 
we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into 
temptation, but deliver us from evil; for Thine is the kingdom, 
and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. 

Mr. B.\NKHEAD. Mr. President, I submit the resolutions 
which I send to the desk, and I ask for their adoption. 

riic Vice-President. TIk- Senator from Alabama submits 
resolutions, which will be read by the Secretary. 



Proceedings in the Senate 69 

The resolutions were read, considered by unanimous consent, 
and unanimously agreed to, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
of Hon. Ariosto A. WilEv, late a MemV)er of the House of Representatives 
from the State of Alabama. 

Resolved, That the business of the Senate be now suspended in order 
that fitting tributes may be paid to his memory. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these resolutions 
to the House of Representatives and to the widow and family of the 
deceased. 



yo Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Bankhead, of Alabama 

Mr. President: We are present in this Chamber to pay hom- 
age to the memory of a man who for many years was my warm 
personal friend, and it is with feeUngs of deep sorrow that I must 
pronounce these brief, cruel words: "He is dead!" 

In reviewing the career of Ariosto Appling Wiley four 
aspects of his character stand out preeminently: Energy, 
patriotism, loyalty, and human kindliness. He was a scholar, a 
lawyer, a soldier, a statesman, and, although able in each and 
all of tliese, he was greatest as a friend. It was this lovable, 
human quality that made the hearts of thousands of his people 
to mourn at his untimely taking off. 

Colonel Wiley began the practice of law in Montgomery in 
1872, a fresh voung alumnus of Emory and Henry College, \'ir- 
ginia, in partnership with that eminent jurist, ex-Chief Justice 
Samuel F. Rice, of the Alabama supreme court. This partner- 
ship lasted for eighteen years, during which time Judge Thomas 
G. Jones, federal judge of the middle district of .Mabama at the 
present time, was also a member of the firm. The experience 
and knowledge gained in his early practice equipped Colonel 
Wiley for the duties that devolved upon him in his future 
political career. 

In 18H2 lie was elected to tiie lower house of the Alabama 
legislature, wliere lie sers'ed as chairman of the committee on 
the revision of laws, as a member of the committee on corpora- 
tions, and invariably as a member of tlie judiciary committees. 



Address of Mr. Bankhead, of Alabama 71 

For years thereafter he was either in the house or the senate of 
the legislature of his State. His city was also the beneficiary 
of his talents and loyalty, for he served fifteen years as an 
alderman of her administrative board. 

His most distinguished professional services, however, of a 
national character were those performed while chief legal adviser 
and chief of staff to General Lawton during the organization of 
affairs in Cuba following the Spanish-American war. 

Colonel Wiley was a soldier by blood and tradition. His 
father. Judge J. McCalcb Wiley, was an officer in the Mexican 
war, and although his son was but a lad during the war of seces- 
sion, he was ever deeply stirred by the stories of valor and of 
strategy displayed by both of the contending armies. For a 
number of years he was captain of the Montgomery Mounted 
Rifles, a famous local military organization, and for twenty 
years he was connected with the Alabama National Guard, hav- 
ing risen from a Heutenant to the command of a regiment. He 
was a man of unusually robust and handsome physique, and in 
the uniform of a high officer presented a martial and impressive 

figure. 

He ser\^ed upon the staffs of four successive governors of his 
State, holding the positions of judge-advocate-general, with 
the rank of colonel of cavalry ; of inspector-general ; of chief of 
ordnance, respectively, upon the staffs of Governor Seay, Gov- 
ernor Gates, Governor Johnston, and Governor Samford. He 
was well prepared by training and experience, therefore, for the 
position of second in command of the Fifth Regiment of \^olun- 
teer Infantry of the United States Army, to which President 
McKinley appointed him, for Cuban ser\'ice on June 9, 1898. 
His appointment to this position was unanimously confirmed in 
this Chamber, and that your confidence was well placed was 
proven by the services which Colonel Wiley rendered to his 



72 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

country on the island. Upon receiving his commission as 
lieutenant-colonel he hurried with his command to Santiago de 
Cuba, his regiment reaching the eastern province just after the 
battle of San Juan Hill was fought. Shortly after arriving at 
Santiago General Lawton, commanding that department, 
availed himself of Colonel Wiley's legal abilities, making him 
his chief legal adviser and chief of staff. His legislative experi- 
ence, his military talents, and his legal lore were all brought 
under contribution in his services as acting civil governor of the 
province of Santiago, to which position he was appointed. He 
set in motion the machinery of the civil government, organized 
the courts, and contributed greatly to the restoration of law and 
order. Upon his return to civil life, after a year's military ser\-- 
ice for his country, he was at once elected to Congress, which 
position he held until his sad death last June. 

Of his political services I could say much. Immediatelv upon 
his entrance into the House of Congress he began to displav that 
effective energy that characterized his whole career. He secured 
large appropriations for his district for internal improvements, 
and gave unfailing sympathy and response to the individual de- 
mands upon his legislative ser\-ices. My association with him, 
especially during his service in Congress, was an intimate one. 
He was always active and vigilant for the best interests of his 
constituents, and was never too busy to exhaust everv resource to 
comply with any request they should make. Among the maiiv 
things he accomplished for them, and one of which he seemed to 
be proud, was a bill introduced aiul passed bv him, with con- 
siderable (lilTiculty, for the relief of a number of homesteaders 
who had entered on certain railroad grants. Hundreds of poor 
l)iit most deserving people in Alabama would have lost their 
homes and the result of years of toil in the improvement of their 
farms had it not been for this 1)111. 



Address of Mr. Bankhead, of Alabama 73 

It was through his duties as a member of the Military Com- 
mittee that Colonel WiLEY came into friendly and intimate re- 
lations with Mr. Taft, who was then Secretary of War. It was 
because Mr. Taft saw in him a man of broad experience and 
deep sympathy that he invited him to become a member of the 
party accompanying him to the Orient. 

Colonel Wiley accepted Mr. Taft's invitation for three rea- 
sons. First of all, he was a citizen and representative of a 
cotton-growing country and he desired to investigate the possi- 
bilities of China and Japan as markets for his people's chief 
product. Secondly, he had been reared in a section of the 
country where there were vast thousands of an inferior race, 
and knew, as only a southern man can know, the quality of 
patience and firmness, of charity and justice, that must be used 
toward a people who have not yet made an ultimate place for 
themselves in social or economic life. It was with the thought 
in his large heart that he might be of some active service to the 
inhabitants of the Philippines, as well as to the flag he serv^ed 
in common with them, that he agreed to go 10,000 miles from 
home and friends. 

In a letter to one of these friends, written upon the high 
seas on the long voyage, Colonel Wiley said, concerning these 
alien citizens, quoting from Robert Herrick : 

We are bound to one another inseparably in this life of ours. We 
make a society that is composite. Whatever we do to weaken the sense 
of that common bond disintegrates society. Whatever we can do to 
deepen the sense of that common bond makes life stronger and better. 

The third reason why Mr. Taft's invitation appealed to Colonel 
Wiley was personal to the poetic, the romantic, and the adven- 
turous side of his nature. He was a man of refined mental cul- 
ture, and his imagination had often been stirred bv the litera- 
ture and history of the Orient. Therefore those of us who had 
been priN-ileged to know intimately this phase of the man's 



74 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

inner self can understand the pleasure the prospect of these 
foreign travels afforded him. The contrasts of life were never 
more clearlv illustrated than in the fact that the very day when 
Secretary Taft was nominated by the dominant political party of 
the United States to fill the highest office in the gift of the people 
the silent form of Col. A. A. WiLEV, his friend and comrade, was 
being conveyed from the mountains of \'irginia back to the heart 
of the cotton country that he loved so well, to find a resting 

place. 

We are such stufif. 

As dreams are made on, 

And our little life 

Is rounded with a sleep. 

He was genial and kindly and generous, possessing in a larger 
degree than most men possess those warm friendships that 
are rooted in esteem's deep soil, resulting from a slow and 
gradual culture of kind intercourse necessary to bring them to 
perfection. 

One of these friends and neighbors, upon the occasion of his 
funeral, wrote the following delicate verses in his memory: 

Not because the Nation needs him, 

Not because the State will mourn. 
Do I gather up the brightness 

That his gracious smile has worn. 
And now weave it into garlands, 

That no time can wilt or fade. 
For the grave upon the hilltop 

Where the sunshine meets the shade. 

How his happy, friendly jjresence 

Mingles with the sod to-day, 
As a shining shaft at sunset 

Pierces into clouds of gray; 
And 1 call from spaces endless, 

Where remembered kindness grows. 
This one little song of tribute 

Set about witli friendship's rose. 



Address of Mr. Bankhead, of Alabama 75 

Not alone to kings and peasants 

Did his cordial hand extend — 
Everything that needed comfort 

Felt the presence of this friend ; 
Animals and trees and flowers 

Flourished where his eyes would stray, 
And he counted years as empty 

If no blessing went his way. 

Now he rests; and loud the bird song 

Tells the cheer his voice had told; 
Soft clouds drift above the hilltop 

As if they his words enrolled. 
Life was sunshine, life was friendship — 

This, and more, his bright heart shed; 
And a smile meets us this morning 

That will live when time is dead. 



76 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 



Address of Mr. McEnery. of Louisiana 

Mr. President: Col. Ariosto Appling Wiley, a Member of 
the Sixtieth Congress from the Second Congressional District 
of Al'abama, died on the 17th day of June, 1908, in the city of 
Washington. 

The high and low, llie good and bad, must die, 

And then, 'tis taught, begin again to live. 
Somewhere, somehow, wlio knows? 

Col. Ariosto Wiley was born in the State of Alabama on 
November 6, 1848. He was graduated with honor at limory 
and Henry College, Virginia, in June, 1871. He chose the law 
for his profession, and for eighteen years was in partnership 
with that eminent jurist, ex-Chief Justice Samuel F. Rice, of the 
supreme court of Alabama, and after his death continued the 
management of the late firm's legal business, which involved 
many intricate questions in law and large interests, lie was 
thus thrown in contact with a bar distinguished for the ability 
and high character of its membership. He rapidly rose to the 
front rank of his profession, and his legal ability was acknowl- 
edged throughout the State of Alabama. 

I have been told by those who were familiar with his con- 
nection with the bar that he was a skillful special pleader and 
an expert practitioner, while his knowledge of the principles of 
jurisprudence and their foundation was as thorough as his 
application of them was masterly. 

In the House of Represent ali\es he was classed among the 
foremost of its able Members. His stvle in his addresses was 



Address of Mr. McEnery, of Louisiana 77 

that of close and severe reasoning, without ornamentation, con- 
cise and correct. There was left no impression of diction or 
declamation, but only of the thing said. He had the sublimest 
faith in the wisdom of the fathers of the Republic, and never 
departed from their teaching. No popular outburst could influ- 
ence him to vote for any measure which his conscience told 
him violated the Constitution, notwithstanding the demand that 
it was for the relief of an "oppressed people from corporate 
power and tyranny." He did not believe that the wisdom of 
past times was "the unripe fruit of imperfect intellectual 
culture." He was a patriot. He served with distinction in 
the Spanish-American war and was recommended for promotion 
to brigadier-general by his commanding officer for service in the 
field, and as an able counselor and adviser in framing a con- 
stitution for the Province of Santiago. In the field of legisla- 
tion he was eminently successful, and in the general assembly of 
Alabama, in the house and the senate, he was industrious, wise, 
and conserv^ative, and his influence on legislation was recognized 
in the enactment of needed laws, judicious and wise, which 
greatly promoted the material interests of the State. 

There rests no stain upon his integrity in professional, pri- 
vate, or public life. He was scrupulously punctual and just 
in all his deaUngs. In domestic life he was pure and without 
fault. He was a delightful companion. He had solid good 
sense, a cheerful temper, good humor, and a playful wit, and 
there was about him a charm which attracted the humblest 
and the highest. He was beloved of all classes in his State, 
both for his great usefulness in the public service, the warmth 
of his affection, and for his virtues. 

His life was spent in the courts, in legislative chambers, in 
the field, in party conflict — in fact, from birth to mature man- 
hood his life was one of conflict and endeavor. It is rare, in- 



78 Memorial Addresses: Ariosto A. Wiley 

deed, that such a character appears and passes through such 
experiences with character not only untarnished but brightened. 
Success attended his every footstep, and his people applauded 
and rewarded his steady advance. His nature was noble and 
generous, even to the greatest fault. There was nothing paltry 
or sordid in his understanding or his heart. We remember his 
kindly nature and social graces — 

While the soft memory of his virtue 
Yet lingers like twilight hours 
When the bright sun is set. 



Address of Mr. Johnston, of Alabama 79 



Address of Mr. Johnston, of Alabama 

Mr. President: Ariosto A. Wiley was born in Alabama 
in 1848. He was a descendant of distinguished Scotch ances- 
tors, who settled in ^Mecklenburg County, N. C, before the Rev- 
olution and acquitted themselves as patriots in that eventful 
struggle. He graduated at Emory and Henry College, Vir- 
ginia, and was admitted to the bar in 1872. He began the 
struggle of life in the period of reconstruction, when the clouds 
hung dark and heavy over his native State, and when despair 
was held at bay only by the indomitable courage and fidelity 
of her people. He soon removed from Troy to the capital city 
of Alabama and entered upon a long and brilliant career which 
finallv placed him at the head of his profession in that city, so 
famous for its lawyers. 

He was not one of those lawyers who attained success by a 
devotion confined to his profession to the exclusion of all other 
affairs of life, but was a citizen taking interest in all that con- 
cerned the people of his city, county, and State, serving them 
V ell and faithfully for quite twenty years in the municipal 
government and in the house and senate of his State. In the 
latter he was chairman of the most important committees in 
each house, and was faithful and diligent in the performance of 
every duty, notwithstanding his pressing engagements at the 
bar. When the war with Spain occurred, Wiley tendered his 
services and was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth 
Regiment U. S. Volunteer Infantry. 

He soon attracted the attention of the gallant and lamented 
General Lawton, and served as his chief of staff and as civil 
governor of the eastern province of Cuba for som.e time. Re- 



8o Memorial Addresses: Ariosio A. Wiley 

turning home when the war ceased, he was elected to the Fifty- 
seventh Congress, and continued to sen^e in that body until he 
died, a Member of the Sixtieth Congress, in the vigor of a 
splendid manhood. 

This is the brief record of his public ser\'ice, but what his- 
torian can relate or what friend narrate the many services he 
rendered, the kindly deeds he performed, or the joy he brought 
to the friends with whom he associated, to his family and loved 
ones, or to those in distress or sorrow? 

I knew him well as legislator, lawyer, citizen, soldier, and 
friend. Ik- scr\ed on my staff when I had the honor to be 
governor of Alabama. Kindly, sympathetic, cheerful, full of 
generous sympathies, courageous, strong in his convictions, 
faithful to friends, to his country and State, to be with him, to 
know his heart, and to witness his many unselfish and generous 
acts, was to appreciate him more and more at his true value. 
He was bold and aggressive when he stood for client or cause, a 
formidable adversary in any forum, and a generous foeman, who 
never struck below the belt or causelessly wounded the feelings 
of any man. The combat over, the victory won, he bound up 
the wounds of liis adversary, soothed his feelings, and never 
boasted of his deeds or harbored animosit>-. 

While he commanded attention and respect in any forum to 
which he was called by the graces of his oratory and the logic 
of his argument, it was in the social circle where the kindliness 
of his heart and scintillations of his intellect shone most con- 
spicuously. 

No man of generous impulses who knew him well could fail 
to love him. Xo appeal was ever made to his sympathy that 
did not meet jjrompt response; no demand for his ser\-ices 1)\ 
the people he loved so well was ever denied, however great the 
personal sacrifice. 



Address of Mr. Johnston, of Alabama 8i 

I saw him here in Washinjrton in liis last illness, suffering 
great pain, but thoughtful still of the comfort of those around 
him. Little then did I think that I should never again see his 
attractive smile, feel his generous greeting, or hear his kindly 
voice. 

I saw him laid to his eternal rest in his loved citv, and I 
saw the great concourse of friends and acquaintances, white 
and black, that gathered around the grave to bid a long fare- 
well to a generous, faithful, and affectionate friend; and it 
seemed then to me that this tribute to the man, to the citizen, 
and to the friend was the most convincing testimony that any 
man could have that he had not lived in vain or wrought for 
self alone. 

Many years will doubtless pass before time shall have taken 
the edge from the sorrow of wife and son. The sympathy of 
friends, the remembrance of happier days, may bring some 
solace to their hearts; and it must soften their grief to know 
and feel that the loss is not all theirs, and that the people of 
his city and State and a host of friends will long remember 
and regret him. 

o 

86920 — H. Doc. 1544, 60-2 6 



h N '09 



